Tale of the New Dragon
by GracefulLeopard
Summary: Takes place about a year after HTTYD 2. Auster is from the Bandit clan. She is given the task of spying on Berk, but dies in a shipwreck before she can make it and is washed up on the beach as her dragon Griffin. Now she has to figure out if she wants to side with her clan or Hiccup's kindness before the winter solstice. My first story! Spoilers and rated T 'cuz of later on
1. Prolouge

**Hey! My first fan fiction! I've been wanting to post something but nothing came to my mind that I liked, but then I thought of this! Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own How To Train Your Dragon, only Auster and Griffin.

* * *

It was a stormy night, as if Thor was trying to stop the voyage that the small ship was making across the swirling black ocean. _Life changing moments always seem to have a storm in them_, I thought. _Maybe my life will take a big turn soon. _What I had no idea about was that I couldn't have been more right.

* * *

My name is Auster. I always wished my parents named me Amber, because that is the color of my hair and sometimes, my eyes. I had those types of eyes that were gray, but changed. I wasn't sure how. Nobody's explanation made any sense.

I control my emotions. I don't show them in public, because I was trained not to have any. I couldn't, with the job the Bandit Clan had me perform.

I was a spy. I met my dragon, Griffin at three months. Griffin was a Scorchspine, one of the last the clan were born on the same day, which brought us close. As we grew up the Bandits had us not be near anyone but each other and the warriors who watched us. Thus we formed an even stronger bond, and came to rely on only each other for support.

My first mission with Griffin was when we were sent to spy on a Berserker village we had been in alliance with, because Chief was suspicious of them not giving their full pay for us exterminating their dragons. I was only eight. We discovered that were keeping a third of our pay for themselves, and immediately broke off the alliance and ransacked the village, Bandit style. Some people say we're crazier than the Berserkers themselves. I don't blame them.

That was what went through my head as we crossed the stormy sea towards the small island called Berk. Chief wanted to study their habits so we could loot them and continue on, with our main force in tow while we found and uninhabited island. Our own had been destroyed.

I double checked all my supplies. Sword, check. Upgraded saddle, check and on Griffin. Super hard steel-tainted Saxe knife, check. Gloves and leather boots with iron on underside, check. Camping supplies, check.

I tied my supplies to Griffin's saddle and mounted up, ready to fly. As we were about to take off, a huge wave crashed on top of the ship, destroying the mast and most of the deck and throwing men overboard. I was crushed on top of Griffin with the mast falling on top of us and the sail wrapping around us, preventing us from flying away.

I tried to cut or fly out of the sail, but I wasn't fast enough. We were thrown underwater, being sunk like and anchor by the mast attached to the sail.

As I sank, the only one thought crossed my mind before everything went dark.

_I hope Griffin survives._

* * *

Thor, Odin and Freya were all watching as the wave wiped out the pair. All three heard the prayer. All three had the power to do something. And all three were fighting about what to do.

"We should just send them off to Hel and be done with them," Thor said. "They're gone and we shouldn't have to deal with them now.

"But they are brave and noble to their clan and each other," Freya retorted.

"And killers," Odin said. "If we let them live, how do we know that Auster won't just round up the Bandits and continue on?"

"This is the only world they know of," Freya said. "If we let them see how the rest of the world can be peaceful, than they could change. Auster is only twelve, after all, and Griffin is still a young dragon."

Odin grumbled in agreement. Thor shot Freya a glare literally full of lightning. "How are we going to save them?" Thor asked. Odin nodded at that. "It's too late for them," he continued.

Thor and Odin directed their attention to another part of the world. Freya, annoyed at her opinion being ignored one of the few times, cast a spell behind their backs.

"You two will survive," she murmured. "And it might just make things a little more interesting to watch."

* * *

**By the way, if you didn't know, Freya is the goddess of love, fertility, battle and magic.**

**Review and tell me what you would like to see!**


	2. Chapter 1: A New Perspective

**Here it is, chapter one!**

* * *

The first thing I saw when I woke up was sand, and deeper inland, upside-down trees. Then I realized I was on my back. Quickly, I rolled over and shook the sand out of my face. As I lay on the ground, too tired to get up, I took in my surroundings.

I was on a beach, that was obvious, a small one that had no footprints in the sand, showing that it was not often visited. Further inland, I could see the ground sloping upward to cliffs, and some greenish shapes that were probably houses, and-

Wait, were those houses _green?!_

I jumped to my feet, only to crumple back to the ground in pain. I looked down at my four -wait, four?- legs and saw that one was twisted, with the claws digging into the ground and my leg had a large gash. I picked my leg up and examined it carefully. It was a dragon leg.

_This doesn't make sense!_ I thought. I limped to the water and looked at my reflection.

A green head with scales and aqua eyes looked back at me. I jumped, startled, breaking the reflection and sending pain shooting up my leg. I quickly picked it off the ground and looked back at the water as it settled. As I stared at the reflection, a shiver went down my spine, and I saw my reflection change. Spines around my neck quivered. A weird ability, but I don't question things often.

I eventually backed away from the water and tried to make sense of this, but it was hard to. My reflection showed me as a dragon. My dragon Griffin, to be exact. Although I didn't want to believe it, I had to test to see if it was true.

Slowly, I opened my wings and looked at them. Yes, they looked realistic enough. I crouched low, stuck my tail out straight behind me (just noticing it for the first time), and jumped. Beating my wings furiously, I rose higher into the air.

_Okay_, I thought, _here goes nothing. _Angling my wings slightly, I turned around and headed inland, searching for a safe place to stay away from the village.

* * *

Half an hour of flying around the island resulted in only discovering that my wings had cuts on them, which caused me a lot of pain. I desperately wanted to land, but I couldn't find a suitable place. Just as I was about to give up and land right under me, I spotted a cove in the middle of a forest. I dived toward it.

It only took me about two seconds to realize that diving was _not_ easy if you've never flown before. Of course, I didn't know how to straighten myself either, but I tried.

Spreading out my wings as much as I could, I fell towards the cove, crashing into trees before I landed in the pond in the middle of it.

After swimming out of the pond, I looked at myself hard and long for the first time. My vision had cleared, and I no longer saw objects as a green-blue color.

My scales were green, with brown patches scattered around. My wings were huge, each longer than my body. They had spines on the "elbows" and ends. They were red, curved, and poisonous. Then I pulled up my thick, muscular tail next to me.

I had no tail fins, but as I tapped the scales with my claw, they were extremely hard. My claws made a _clink_ sound as I tapped my tail. I scratched my claws along my tail, hard as I could, and recoiled. Not from any cut I made, but from the extreme pain that came from me jamming my claws. I glanced at my tail. Not a scratch. I flung it back behind me, and heard a _crack. _I turned to see what had made the noise.

A tree near the back of the clearing had a branch missing. _That's strange_, I thought. _It had that branch when I got here. _I padded over to see what had made the branch break, and froze. My scale was on the ground next to it. I looked back at my tail, and flung it suddenly at the cliff on my right. A scale flew off my tail and hit it with a thud. Then I examined my tail. There was a small hole where the scale had been, but there was another one under it. Apparently, I could fling my scales off my tail, like a Nadder. I shrugged. Just another thing that I would have discovered sooner or later.

Lastly, I walked over to the water and looked at my head. I had no ears, just small feelers that pick up air vibrations. Spines on my neck, as I had earlier discovered, like the ones on my wings. My teeth were short, serrated and knife sharp.

I sighed. I knew nothing about my own dragon, the one that I had been with for twelve years even if we did almost do no combat. I couldn't believe it. But it wasn't just that. I was lonely. I wanted my dragon to be with me. Griffin was a comforting companion, someone who would always stick by your side and listen to you ramble on and on without giving you that judging look that dragons do, the one that says, _I don't care about you. I'm a dragon. Why should I? _But she wasn't here.

And on that happy thought, I fell asleep next to the water.

Unfortunately, I hadn't noticed the scent of Night Fury and Viking when I had landed.

* * *

**So what do you think? Review and tell me what you thought and what you would like to see!**


	3. Chapter 2: Meet the Alpha

**So, long story short, my computer crashed and destroyed most of this chapter. I tried to rewrite it best as I could but I don't like it as much :/**

**HTTYD and it's characters are not** **mine**! **I own only my OC!**

* * *

**Hiccup's POV**

I had to get away. There was no way I could stay sane in that village if I was there for one more day! Ever since winter had passed, all of Berk was intensely busy. Ice from the Bewilderbeast still needed to be cleaned up and stored, fish was needed to be caught, houses needed to be expanded and constructed, dragon stables needed to be built, and to top it all off, wild dragons were a nusiance! Not to mention the other things that I probably forgot, and that Astrid would later remind me of.

As a result, I was stressed and exausted. The past week I had gotten barely a few hours of sleep and hardly any food. So, I had decided to take a break as Chief, jump on Toothless who took off with a roar, and relax at a place that was peaceful and brought on happy memories- the cove.

As we neared it, though, Toothless would refuse to land in the center, instead turning to the path at the side. After struggling against him for a while, I gave in and flew towards it. He probably, after all, noticed something about it that I hadn't and just wanted to protect me. The stubborn dragon had to always keep me in his sights after the battle with the Bewilderbeast and becoming Alpha, along with the constant nagging memory of my father-well, he just didn't want anything to happen to me.

Angling my gaze to one side of the cove, I saw something that made my brain freeze, slowing down to memories from years ago.

There was a line of crashed-through trees leading down to the center.

**Auster's POV**

* * *

A roar in the distance had interrupted my thoughts, not that I minded much about them. I had been thinking about what my life was like- how me and Griffin fit together, and things like that. I had a lot of time to think in the cove, since my wings were too cut-up for now to fly. I ended up coming to conclusions about the past, and also thought about stupid things like why the grass was green and why birds and dragons could fly.

So when the sound filled the cove, I snapped back and my senses were on high alert. It sounded a little high pitched, with a deeper edge. I couldn't recognize it.

_It's a night fury!_ A voice inside my head said. I jumped. Where did that come from? I didn't say that!

_No you didn't, idiot. _The voice said._ I did._

Listening carefully, I realized it was the voice- or, roar, maybe?- of Griffin. I didn't really believe it. _Really? That can't be you._

_Believe it. When you washed up in the shore as me, you actually **took over** me. So now I'm inside your head. Understand?_ _Yeah I get it. Good. Because now we need to hide from the night fury. They aren't always friendly, if you know what I mean. At least, not any that I encountered.__How do you know so much about night furies? Whatever. We need to focus on hiding and talk about that later._

I looked around, searching for a hiding place, before I saw one edge of the cove with a few trees and bushes. I could hide there easily. Bounding quickly over to a large tree, I wrapped my tail around one of the branches and covered my legs and head with my wings, leaving only my eyes showing, as I had seen Griffin do so many times.

Then I waited.

* * *

It took about an hour for the night fury to come to the cove. I noticed a flash of black that was probably it landing on one edge. A few minutes later a head poked above a rock, with bright green eyes scanning for any danger. When he seemed to deem it safe, he walked out from behind. I gasped. There was a person on his back! _That means there are other dragon riders?_ Even more, as his tail came to view, I could see something red on it but it was too far away to see what it exactly was.

Switching my attention back to the person, I tilted my head towards them to try and hear what they were saying. "See, bud, it's nothing dangerous!" the human said. The night fury just grumbled and shook his head, obviously not happy that he could smell me but not see me. "Aww, come on, Toothless!" the human continued. "Let's just relax and enjoy our break, okay?" The night fury stayed silent, but lied down when the human did. Soon both were fast asleep.

I knew that I should stay hidden so that the night fury wouldn't find me, but my curiosity was battling my caution. Eventually curiosity won.

Carefully, I unwound my tail from the branch and shuffled my wings so they were around my stomach. Landing on four paws, I padded quietly over to the pair. First I looked at the human.

He was less bulky, to say, of most other vikings I had seen before, but still had a lot of muscle. He was wearing a brown inner suit and black body armor on his shoulders, green pants with brown leather covers with strange hoops I hadn't ever seen before. He was wearing one black boot and his other foot was a complicated prosthetic. His fact was tired and worn, and his auburn hair was tussled as he lay against the night fury.

I turned my gaze to the night fury. He was dark black, his large wings folded up at his sides. He wore a brown saddle on his back, with loops that went through his feet and around his stomach. Two stirrups, one normal with standard grip but the other one was as of a complicated piece as the foot of the human's. Looking down at his tail, I could see a bright red tail flap next to the natural black one. It seemed like both the human and night fury had to be together for him to fly.

As I bent down for a closer look at how the tail worked, my own tail swung round and hit the night fury. Realizing what I had just done, I stepped back multiple paces as he opened his eyes. They were bright green and the pupils were dilated, but they narrowed into slits as he saw me. He jumped up, spread his wings out, and roared at me. The message was clear: _Stay away! _

At the sound of his dragon roaring, the human had too woken up and was looking with wide eyes at me. He stepped to the side and tried to calm down the night fury, eventually successfully quieting him down. Then, once again looking at me standing frozen to the spot, he stepped forward with his hand out. Now that was something I couldn't take. I broke out of my frozen stance and snarled at him. The night fury in turn jumped in front of me and snarled back. Being face-to-face with him, I took in his scent, only to recoil back.

Crouching down low in a slow bow, I mumbled, "S-sorry, Alpha."

* * *

**Well, finally done! I would continue it and make it longer but I couldn't think of a better way to finish.**

**Review and tell me what you think!**


	4. Chapter 3: Dragon Attack

**Even though people aren't really reviewing, I'm going to continue to write the story.**

**As for the length/date of updating for the chapters, I will try to make them longer and upload them every few days or so, or one a week at the latest.**

**As always, I do not own HTTYD. I own only my OC's.**

* * *

Crouching down low in a slow bow, I mumbled, "S-sorry, Alpha"

* * *

**Auster's POV**

I couldn't believe I was so stupid to not notice the dragons scent; he was the Alpha, how could I not?! And more of, he seemed to be extremely protective of the human. So I stayed in the bow until he told me to get up.

_"You will not hurt Hiccup in any way or form, got it?"_ He snarled at me. _"Yes," _I said reluctantly. After hearing my answer, he stepped back and left me facing Hiccup, a astonished look on his face at his dragon. He obviously didn't know what the Alpha could do.

After getting over his surprise, he took on a more serious, but gentle, expression and extended his hand once more at me. I knew he was trying to gain my trust, but I don't just give my trust to anybody. I grumbled and turned around, flopping down on the ground and bringing my tail around gently to try and cover my face. Seeing this, he started to speak.

"Oh no! Toothless, what did you say? Now you made the dragon mad." He said to Alpha. He just grumbled, saying _"You don't know what I did."_ Hiccup continued speaking to Alpha, and I took on the opportunity to stand up and walk over to the trees I had sheltered in earlier, laying down in some thick bushes with only my tail slightly poking out. Then I fell asleep, certain that they would not find me.

**Hiccup's POV**

After arguing with Toothless about him making the dragon mad, I finally gave up and turned back to where it was laying, only to find that it vanished! I looked around the cove, but saw nothing. Turning to Toothless, I saw that he was just as clueless as I was. I sighed. That dragon didn't look like anything in the book, so it must be a new species, but if I couldn't gain its trust I couldn't take it back to study it. I shrugged. Maybe I was wrong, and it was in the book.

"C'mon, Bud" I said as I climbed on Toothless's back. "Let's go ask Fishlegs."

**TIMELAPSETIMELAPSETIMELAPSETIMELAPSETIMELAPSE**

"I don't know, Hiccup" Fishlegs said as he paced the room with the Book of Dragons in his hand. "I've never heard of any kind of dragon like that, and it isn't in the Book."

"Well than," I told him. "we just need to train it. It shouldn't be too hard."

"Oh, yes" Fishlegs said sarcastically. "It 'shouldn't be too hard' to train a dragon that can disappear without a sound, challenges the Alpha -a night fury Alpha, at that- without a second thought, flat-out refuses our best dragon trainer, and is **completely** unpredictable because we don't know its behavior, personality, or stats!" he cried, yelling out the last bit. "Do you want me to continue?" Fishlegs asked worriedly.

"Please don't" I said. "You're only making it seem worse than it is. As long as the dragon stays in the cove, we should be fine. I saw some injuries on its wings, so-" I was interrupted by a roar and cries of "Dragon attack!"

"Oh, that doesn't sound good" I said as I ran out the door and jumped on Toothless.

**Auster's POV**

Okay, originally I wasn't planning on attacking the village with a drunk viking on my back. Somehow that happened. But before that...

**_Flashback-1 hour ago_**

After Hiccup and Alpha left, I became bored. So bored, in fact, that I started talking to Griffin inside my head. (This is _Auster's voice_ and this is _Griffin's_ _voice_)

_So how much do you know about Berk?_

_About as much as you do._

_Did you know there was a new Alpha?_

_I could sense two changes in leadership. One was evil, I could feel it sinisterness. But soon after it changed again, into a gentle one, like it was before it was evil._

_Did you know it was a night fury?_

_No._

_Do you know much about night furies?_

_*silence*_

_Griffin, what are you not telling me?_

_My species has a...ancient memory of night furies. Our species were close, so we knew much about each other._

_Okay, can you start with how many night furies exist?_

_By what I know, there is a-_

We were interrupted by a large flap of wings and the arrival of a monstrous nightmare. A burly man jumped off the dragon, not seeming noticing me even though I was sitting in the middle of a clearing. But as I heard him speak to his dragon, I noticed that he had a slur to his words. That meant he was drunk.

_Drunk is not a good thing on a viking._

_How do you know?_

_Have you **seen** Kaider after 15 quarts of mead?_

_Good point._

Watching the viking carefully, I took in him and his dragon.

His dragon was large, red with black stripes, and had a fiery temper. But he seemed to know when his rider couldn't take care of himself, and do it for him. Obviously, this was one of those times.

At this moment, the rider noticed me and started towards me, mumbling something. I could only make out some words, such as "Tuffnut", "Ultimate dragon trainer", and "Wild dragon". The nightmare tried to grab him, but just received a punch in the jaw, which hit the pressure point and knocked him out. Then the human started coming towards me again.

I snarled and raised my wings in warning, the whole 80 foot wingspan high in the air. The human just snorted and reached for something in his pocket. It was a knife. I growled, low and warningly, as he took it out. But instead of trying to throw it or stab me, he simply tilted it in the sun, and a dot of light appeared on the ground. I pounced on it, dropping my wings and becoming quiet. When I landed on it, it disappeared! I looked around and I saw it, sitting near the humans feet. Quietly, slowly, I crept up and jumped on top of it, and it vanished again!

Before I had a chance to find it once more, I felt a heavy weight on my back. Twisting to look behind me, I saw the viking on my back, holding on to my neck! I snarled, and flipped onto my back, but he held firm. I jumped into the water, keeping him submerged, but he wouldn't let go. Finally, I raised my wings and took off. He seemed to yell something at that time, but it was too muffled by the wind.

I was heading for the ocean, where I could simply do barrel rolls until he fell off into the water, but he jerked my head painfully towards the village. Not wanting to feel the sharp sting of my neck being pulled painfully, I obliged and glided toward the center. As I started to land, I could feel the viking pulling my jaws open. Obviously he wanted me to breathe fire, but I didn't think it was a good idea, so I resisted. I then received a punch to the face and more pulling, so I gave in. I was malnurished, injured, and tired, and I didn't want to fight this heavy strong figure that was seated astride me.

Opening my jaws, I unleashed a torrent of white flame towards a large building connected to a mountain. The front wood door caught and started burning. Being turned in the opposite direction, I flamed some wood buildings.

As I was being turned again, I could hear a _woosh woosh woosh_ sound growing louder, feeling the rider jumping off, and then the next thing I knew, my wings were pinned to my sides and I was falling towards the ground.

30 yards, 20, 10, 5... and then black.

**Hiccup's POV**

After jumping on Toothless and getting filled in by Astrid on what was going on, I ordered vikings and dragons: "Try and put out the Great Hall and the houses, then move all valuable objects, weapons, and food to a safe place!" I was expecting slight hesitation before they started the jobs I put them to, but they immediately ran to do the tasks. Then I remembered, I was Chief, and they'll do what I say without a second thought. "I'm still getting used to it," I said to Toothless as we flew to help Astrid.

"Snotlout got drunk and is atop the dragon," she said. "You get him off and I'll take down the dragon with a bola." I nodded and flew just below the dragon, yelling to Snotlout to jump on. He obeyed, and leapt onto the saddle, swaying slightly. _Oh great,_ I thought. _He's too drunk to even balance on a saddle, much less make even slightly good choices. So that's how the dragon got here and went crazy._ Then I could see the dragon get hit by the bola and go down, hitting the ground with a _thump_.

Landing next to it, I checked to see that it was unconscious. Turning around to survey the village, I could examine the remains of the attack. The Great Hall was slightly scorched, but not too damaged. The houses were empty at the time, and despite having a few crowded houses for the next few weeks, nothing too important was broken or destroyed.

Turning to Astrid, who was waiting expectedly for orders, I said, "Take the dragon to the arena and put it in one of the stalls. Make sure it's wings are tied." "Should I muzzle it?" Astrid asked me. I hesitated. I didn't like muzzling dragons, but if I didn't it might breathe flames. "Muzzle it." I said to her. She nodded and called to other villagers to help her carry it to the arena.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I turned to see Fishlegs. "Was that the dragon you saw?" he asked me. I nodded, too full of adrenaline to speak. "You know, that dragon looked an awful lot like a mutant night fury," Fishlegs continued. I looked at him in surprise. "Do you really think..." I trailed off. Fishlegs took in a deep breath. "Yes I really do. And if that dragon is a cousin of the night fury, than that could mean-"

"It means that there could be more night furies out there" I finished.

* * *

**Two notes:**

**1) A bola is the rope with two metal spheres attached to it at the ends. It is what Hiccup used in the first movie to take down Toothless.**

**2) Snotlout and Tuffnut were having an argument about who was the ultimate dragon trainer, besides Hiccup. They were both extremely drunk at the time, and Snotlout stormed out into the forest to find and train a wild dragon, which is how he came across Auster.**

**_ALSO, I STILL NEED IDEAS AS TO WHAT TO CALL THE SPECIES._  
**


	5. Chapter 4: Writings on the Wall

**My story is starting to get seen and reviewed more, and I'm really thankful.**

**As always, I don't own HTTYD, only my OC's**

* * *

**Auster's POV**

When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was darkness. I didn't panic, it was probably just nighttime. But then when I looked up I saw no moon, no stars, and when I looked around there was only a narrow slit in one of the walls to show light. Then I remembered; the viking, the dragon, attacking the village. I stood up and tried to unfurl my wings, but they were tied to my sides by a rope that rubbed my cuts painfully. _Okay, _I thought. _Just bite through them. _I tried to open my jaws, but I couldn't; they were muzzled. I tried breathing fire, but I couldn't create more than an ember with my mouth forced shut.

_Okay, what do you think I should do, Griffin?_

No answer

_Great. Griffin is silent and I have no idea where I am or what's going to happen to me._

So, I did the only thing that took away my boredom- I wrote. Scratching the letters on the wall wasn't very hard; my legs weren't tied so I could move around freely. But I did notice another thing as I moved around the cage writing: I was chained to the wall. I could only reach juuust before the door. I suspected it was so they didn't have to worry about me escaping. I didn't mind much, because it was nice to be able to rest somewhere that was quiet for more than a few hours.

Scratching on the wall, drawing pictures along with what I wrote, I half slept on my feet before I filled up the whole wall and laid down to rest.

**Hiccup's POV**

After Astrid took the dragon to the arena, I went and organized the next days work in the Great Hall, then headed for my house.

Opening the door, I saw my mother Valka sitting at the table. She looked up as I walked inside, Toothless right behind me.

"Tough day?" she asked. I nodded. "What's wrong?" she continued. I gazed at her, confusion written on my face. Then I remembered- she had been passed out all day, exhausted from working on renovating the house, and hadn't heard what happened. "A dragon attacked the village" I told her. Her face shone with alarm. "But Astrid took care of it, and now it's in a cage inside the arena." I sighed. "I just don't know, Mom. We haven't had a dragon attack in years. We haven't found a new species since I took over a Chief, and this one seems extremely dangerous."

Valka stood up, a sympathetic look on her face. "Look," she said. "How about I take over your chiefing duties for a while so that you can work with this new dragon, okay?"

I looked at her "Would you really do that?" She nodded. "Thanks," I said, climbing up the stairs to my bed, where I collapsed and fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow.

**THENEXTDAYTHENEXTDAYTHENEXTDAY**

**Auster's POV**

I woke up to a creaking sound. Opening my eyes, I could see the cage door opening and the light pouring in. After a night of complete darkness, the light hurt my eyes, and I hissed in pain.

After my eyes adjusted and the brightness faded to a tolerable level, I could make out a figure standing at the door. Looking carefully, I could see it was the viking that rode Alpha. Hiccup, I think his name was. He was holding a shield and a weird metal stick, and when I started getting close to him he pressed a button and it became covered in flames.

Transfixed by the waving light, I hardly noticed Hiccup coming closer to me. Before I knew it, he was next to me. He took off the muzzle and clipped the chain off, then stepped back. I looked around, uncertain what to do. My wings were still bound, so I couldn't fly off, but Hiccup was off to the side of the cage and giving my a clear path out. Slowly, with my eyes on Hiccup, I walked out of the cage.

I was in a large arena, with a barred domed top. The only entrance and exit was a sloped ramp covered by a bar door. To my left and right were other cages of similar manner, but smaller. I also noticed that Alpha was sitting at the exit, watching me through narrowed eyes.

Turning around to face Hiccup again, I saw that he now held a fish. My stomach growled loudly at the sight of it. It had been at least a week since I had last eaten, and I was ravenous. Running toward him, I stopped right in front of him. He gently held out the fish to me, and I took it and ate it in one bite.

Seeing the look on his face, I thought he wanted some fish too. I walked forward, and he backed against a wall, shield in front of him. Behind me, I could hear Alpha growling at me. I ignored him, showing Hiccup my teeth in an eating gesture. He seemed to get it, because he said, "No, no thanks. I'm not hungry." Backing up with a shrug, I lay down in the center of the arena and watched him. He stared at me in silence for a few minutes, taking in my size, my tied wings, my head, my spines, my tail. Then he turned to the top of the arena and called, "Hey, Fishlegs! Astrid! Snotlout! Tuffnut, Ruffnut! Come down here!"

Watching the gate, I saw it open to reveal five more humans entering, before closing again and Alpha taking the guard position.

The first human was large, with short blond hair and wearing brown furs. He gasped when he saw me, and seemed to bounce in excitement.

The next one was female, and she wore a red shirt, brown skirt, blue leggings, shoulder armor with a fur cape attached to it, and had her blond hair in a braid down one side of her head. She looked at me with guilt, but I knew not why.

Next was two people; one male and one female, twins. They were both slightly skinny, with long blond hair in braids. They had large helmets on with horns, and I observed later that they liked to bang their heads together alot. They looked at me with excitement; the look that a little kid has when he's about to cause trouble.

Last came another male with leather armor, a black cape, and a large helmet with the horns curved and his brown-black hair close-cropped. He looked at me with smug written on his face, then leaned over and whispered something to the male twin.

At the sight of the last male, I snarled loudly, the spines on my neck raising high and baring my teeth.

Hiccup started talking then to the group, "This dragon attacked the village yesterday on behalf of Snotlout riding it" *stares accusingly at Snotlout* "It is wild, but a new species, so I called you all to help me come up with a species name and such. But be careful, as we don't know what it will do."

"We don't know what _she_ will do" Astrid corrected. "Well, you just spoiled my first question, but oh well. Now we should come up with a name..." Hiccup continued.

Snotlout snorted. "I already came up with one" he said. "In fact, I trained this dragon yesterday when I flew into the village" Hiccup looked at him disbelievingly, but told him to go on.

"The species name is Snotfang, after me and Hookfang discovering it." he said. At this, I growled in disapproval. Hiccup looked to me, then back to Snotlout. "I don't think she likes your idea on the name," he said. "Of course she does," Snotlout said. "And if she doesn't, then she has to deal with it, and has to learn to respect me," he said, now walking toward me. My growl changed to a snarl as he got closer. "Snotlout..." Hiccup said warningly.

Snotlout ignored the warning, and before I could react, jumped on my back once more and held onto my neck spines. I freaked. I could take Hiccup, I could take them all being near me and watching me, I could maybe even stand some touching me, but I could never, **_never_****_,_**let them ride me again.

With a loud roar, I reared up onto my hind legs and shot off towards the nearest wall, slamming myself and Snotlout into it. He didn't budge, so I dropped onto the ground and did barrel rolls. Nothing. Just a jerk on my neck from him pulling my spines and a kick in the side. That kick did it. I ran around the arena in circles, gaining speed with every lap until I was fast enough that I'm sure Hiccup only saw a blur. Opening my jaws, I let out a stream of white fire that filled the arena. I could see the riders taking cover behind shields, and Alpha trying to protect Hiccup.

My flames were now streaming around me, burning the ropes off my wings. _This is it,_ I thought. Running to the exit, I unleashed a torrent of fire to the bars until the weakened enough for me to burst through. Running out the arena, I opened my huge wings and got ready to take off.

Just as I was about to leap I could feel a force holding me back. It was the Alpha. He didn't want me to fly away. But I wanted to. I fought against the call, but it took over me, filling my ears with a buzzing noise and making my vision cloud until I saw nothing but black, and my muscles freeze to the spot. I couldn't take it. I was fighting too hard, it was too strong, and I was too tired with the heavy viking still clinging onto my spines for dear life.

My eyes blanked, and I collapsed to the ground.

**Two days later, Hiccup's POV**

Watching the female dragon, I sighed. She was straining towards me, fangs showing, her wings tense against the metal harness. Ever since Snotlout jumped on her, she was unaproachable. I was the only one allowed slightly near her. She would let me get close, but if I came close enough to touch her, she would snarl and I would back off. Every day, I would try to get close, and every day I would fail.

Toothless wanted to help, by making the dragon not attack me while I tried to train her, but I didn't want him to use his power as Alpha that way. So I could only get close enough to feed her; no one else but me wanted to feed the scared, roaring dragon. Every day, morning after breakfast and evening after dinner I would come into the arena, open the cage, remove the muzzle, and toss a few fish at her feet. It was the only time when she was quiet, while she ate she watched me with terrified but curious eyes.

One evening, particularly late, I went to feed her. The setting sun was at an angle where the light shone into the cage, and I could look around at the stone walls with clarity; they weren't covered in shadow like they normally were. Looking around, I could see one wall had strange marks in it. Curious, I stepped forward and took a closer look. I gasped at what I saw.

There was writing, with pictures every so often, describing many things. One part about the attack on the village, one about the dragon crashing here, and one about- night furies? Suddenly incresingly interested, I traced the writing, only to hear a snarl as I placed my fingers on the wall. It was the dragon, mad at me for touching its work. I resisted a laugh, remembering Toothless drawing with the tree so many years ago and how he acted similarly.

Taking my fingers off, I calmed hearing the dragon stop snarling. Leaning forward to the wall, I tried to make out the carved letters about night furies, but there wasn't much. Only about how there was secrets the dragon knew about them but couldn't unlock. What did that mean? Looking at the dragon, I saw that she was staring at me with sad eyes. I put the muzzle back on her and stepped out, closing the cage.

I would find out tomorrow what the dragon knew.

* * *

**Wow, that was hard to write. Sorry if anything seems rushed or whatnot, I really wanted to get this out of my mind and written down.**

**Review please, and I still need ideas if you have any on what to call the species, or I will make up some ridiculous name!**

**Also, I want to do the next chapter in only one perspective, so tell me which one you would like it to be in, Hiccup's or Auster's**


	6. Chapter 5: Escapes and Alphas

**Wow! Lots of views on my story! Yay! Thanks for reading it!**

**I have an idea for the dragon species and Auster's soon-to-be new name, too**

**And, I'm bad at apologizing, so I'm just gonna say I have a procrastination problem...**

* * *

**Hiccup's POV**

Thump...thump..._THUMP-THUD._

Rolling over in my sleep, I grumbled, "Toothless, I don't want to go flying! This is the earliest time you've woken me up!" Another _t__hump _was all that I got in response.

Groaning and yawning, I stood up and slowly put on my flight suit, then while walking downstairs I scribbled a note to my mother. _Went out flying early before Toothless ran out of patience. Try to be back by breakfast _it said. Putting it on the table and grabbing a small bundle, I ran outside to where Toothless was standing, saddle on and ready. I shook my head and jumped on him. I still couldn't figure out how he managed to put on the saddle, but it saved me a lot of time.

Flying up, I started to head higher, but Toothless refused, instead heading towards the Arena. I blanked on why he would want to go there, but then it cleared. _He wants me to train that dragon before it causes any more damage, _I thought. As if reading my mind, Toothless hummed and nodded. I angled him towards the front and we landed softly.

Getting off Toothless, I opened the gate to the Arena, grimacing at how it made such a loud creaking noise. Stepping inside, I remembered the class I did all those years ago that eventually leaded everyone wanting me to kill Hookfang. I walked to the cage where the dragon was and grabbed the lever, pushing it down and watching the large log slowly lift up. I pulled the doors open and prepared myself for immediate snarling. I was surprised when I got none.

Looking closer, I saw that the dragon was watching me with amber eyes. _Wait... weren't her eyes aqua last time I saw her? _I glanced and saw that it was true; her eyes had changed color to amber. That didn't make sense, but I wouldn't say anything to offend her. Instead, I walked slowly to her and pulled off the muzzle and the heavy metal harness. She didn't make a sound, just watched me with a curious look. I breathed in deeply. Now would be the test to see if she trusted me to the point I needed her to. Slowly, carefully, I pulled my knife out of my sheathe.

Immediately she started snarling, showing me her teeth. I ignored that, instead kept my eyes down and walking towards her tied wings. She let me get close, and I reached out and cut the ropes off, releasing her bound wings. Then I stepped back and watched her.

She seemed confused as of what to do now that she was free- completely, utterly free. She just padded around, sniffing the air and watching me. After a few minutes, she sat and looked at me, with a question so obviously written on her face: _so, what are you going to do now?_

I walked back over to Toothless and reached inside the saddlebag, pulling out a leather harness and some rope. I had made it out of a guess on her size, and I could only hope that it would fit. I put the size somewhere between Toothless and Hookfang.

Moving slowly, I wrapped the leather straps around her neck, stomach and forelegs. Tightening the straps slightly, I stepped back and looked at her. She watched me with expectant eyes. I grabbed the rope and tied it to two hooks on the harness, then one knot on Toothless's saddle.

Tugging the rope to make sure it was secure, I climbed onto Toothless and clicked the fin into place, glancing at the dragon. She was crouched, eager and waiting, as I prepared. Shifting in the saddle and angling my gaze to the open door of the Arena, I said, "Well, girl, it's time to see what you can really do."

**Auster's POV**

As soon as Hiccup said those words, I shot off, running just faster than Alpha. As I approached the edge of the cliff, I spread my wings and jumped, Hiccup on the Alpha half a second behind me.

We fell a few feet, then glided out as our wings straightened. I had a little bit of trouble, as my wingspan was bigger than Alpha's, but I enjoyed flying and stretching my wings after being in a cage for days.

We flew up and down through the layers of clouds, enjoying the cooling weather as summer made its way out and fall approached. Summer was short on the northern Isles, just lasting two months. Fall and spring were even less, lasting only one month each. Five months were for winter; devastating winter lasted three.

But for now, I just enjoyed the clouds as the rising sun lit them up in colorful shades of orange, pink, and blue as we did tricks soaring through them. All of us were so distracted with the joy of flying that we didn't notice a fleet of ships below us until arrows were zipping past our wings.

Alpha and Hiccup wanted to fly up into the clouds where we would be less visible, but I caught a glance of the seal on the flags. _That... is a Wolf-Fang symbol on those sails. The Bandit Clan has made it to Berk._

I started diving towards the ships; I had to get a closer look. Thankfully, I was better at diving than I was the first time I tried it, though Alpha was flaring out his wings to try and slow me down. It worked slightly, but I had the size and weight advantage. Even so, I could tell that when I had to straighten out it would be too clumsy with him resisting. There was multiple things I could do, such as climb into the safety of the clouds with Hiccup, but I decided to choose the stupider option.

I twisted and bent my left wing until the edge spines were right next to the rope that held us together. Moving my wing wildly, I started to cut the rope with my spines. One broke and the pull on my harness lessened. I glanced down at the ocean. We weren't as high as before, maybe twenty seconds before hitting at the speed we were falling.

"NO!" I heard Hiccup shout, and tilted my head to see him setting Alpha's fin in place and unhooking himself. My eyes widened and I worked more frantically to cut the second rope. I couldn't let him try to stop me, to put himself in danger by being on top of me when I got near the ship. I felt my wing catch on the rope and I pulled it as hard as I could.

The rope snapped and Hiccup, his foot about to leave the stirrup, quickly rose Alpha higher so that he could watch me without being seen. Looking down, I could see was about five seconds from crashing into the water. I extended my wings and felt the pressure of the air as I slowed down just in time and glided toward the ships.

Immediately a cry was taken up and the Bandits were bustling around the ship, gathering weapons and aiming them at me. Some were about to fire crossbows when someone said, "Wait." Although it wasn't loud, everyone heard it. They lowered their weapons and stood at attention as Chief walked towards the bow, where I hovered with large wing beats.

Standing with his arms behind his back, he clicked his tongue and said _"at studium" _Something inside my brain lit and I dropped to the deck, alert with my eyes straight forward.

Chief nodded, and I looked at his face. He had a content smirk and a thought flashed through my head about what he usually does after he relays the commands, but before I could snap out of the trance he continued with "_i__ntellego"._

I slowly unwrapped my wings from my stomach and settled my weight on my back legs until my forelegs were off the ground and my stomach was easily visible, along with the brand that was on every dragon in the Bandit's possession. Mine was a Wolf-Fang surrounding "_Griffin.". _Chief smiled, glee filling his eyes as he saw "I" was his best dragon.

But his smile fell as he saw that "Auster", or, well, _me, _wasn't there. He turned to me with a questioning look, and I dropped onto my forelegs and wrapped my wings again. I shook my head solemnly, and Chief's face sunk with... regret? disappointment? I couldn't tell.

He stared at me a second longer, then turned and pulled something out of4 a box nearby. As he looked back at me, I could make out that it was a whip. Not just any one; it was the one they used to control their dragons. I tensed as Chief uncoiled it and slammed it against the deck.

At the sound, my vision darkened. Similar to an Alpha's control; I still could think and act on my own, but the second the whip cracked and a command rang into the air, my free will would disappear. There was no way I could run now, I was trapped in every way. Sighing from my stupidity, I lay down and plopped my head on my paws and dozed.

Chief, seeing me become still and quiet, turned and fired a rapid amount of orders too soft and fast for me to pick up more than bits and pieces. One of the crewman cast a doubtful look at me, before leaning over and asking another shipmate, "Shouldn't we tie her up?" The other man just shook his head and continued his work. Obviously the first viking was new; he didn't know that even if I did leave I would just be forced back.

There was no choice but for me to wait and see what happened until an opportunity to arise. Letting the exhaustion that filled my body take me, I fell into the deep void of sleep.

**TIMELAPSETIMELAPSETIMELAPSETIMELAPSE**

A sharp pain in my shoulder woke me up, opening my eyes I saw the young crewman from before with his leg back, ready to kick me again. Quickly I stood up and snarled at him, showing my needle-sharp teeth. He hesitated, before turning and walking quickly to another place on the ship.

I stood and shook, then looked at my surroundings. We were on the largest island I had ever seen. You could fit two or three Berks on it. There was multiple forests and a few cliffs, but mostly the area was flat until it sloped up into a huge mountain honeycombed with caves. Dragons were coming and going in and out of them. The ship was settled on a pebbly beach.

But something was wrong. The mood of this place was tense, and that's when it hit me- literally. A sound washed over me and I heard the call, a buzzing sound that made my head spin. There was a strong force here, another Alpha- or maybe two- controlling the island. The dragons flying in and out of the mountain were answering to their call, but I wasn't because Bandit dragons are taught when they are first born not to answer to any Alpha- just the whip.

Chief whistled shrilly, a piercing sound of three notes, one high, low, then high again. It was a call for one of our free-roam dragons. Before I could prepare myself a Seashocker burst out of the water, rocking the boats and spraying water everywhere. Chief jumped on it, looked at me and said _"__Sequitur", _then flew off with me right behind him. We dodged around flying Nightmares, Gronckles, Nadders, and I think I even saw a Skrill before we ended up inside the tunnels of the mountain. After a few seconds of darkness, we glided into the cavern.

It was huge, with ledges all around leading to other caves. There were giant stalactites hanging down, and a giant cloud of fog was covering what was down at the bottom. I could feel the buzzing vibrating my whole body, a force I could only barely resist. Eventually the fog cleared and I saw what was sitting at the bottom.

Two Red Deaths. They were sleeping, but the call was just as strong as ever. Chief reigned in and we hovered for a few seconds as we both took this in. Then Chief laughed, and we flew out to sit on the boats.

"What did you find, Chief?" a crewman asked.

"Two Red Deaths," he said. "And I think I know how to get rid of the Hooligans using them." He smiled, and smoothed the spines down on my neck. "Set a course for Berk!" He shouted, and the ships turned around to the island we would take.


	7. Chapter 6: Snotlout Problems

**Nothing to say, so I'll just get on with the story. Sorry it's so short. It only is a little bit of Auster and mainly Hiccup. And, WARNING: I am terrible at dialouge**

**Also: DISCLAIMER FOR THIS CHAPTER AND ALL BEFORE/AFTER IT: I do not own How To Train Your Dragon, only my OC's**

* * *

**Auster's POV**

"Hold here," Chief said, raising a hand. The five boats sent ahead of the others glided to a halt. I shifted, looking at Berk in the distance, just a smudge on the horizon. Chief turned to me. "Okay, Griffin, here's the plan. Go back to the island. Gain the Hooligans trust. Then, on the winter solstice, bring them to the Red Death's nest. With two Red Deaths and thousands of dragons to face, they will have no chance. Then we can take over their island." I bobbed my head, and Chief gave the free hand signal. I unfurled my wings and started flying towards Berk.

* * *

**Hiccup's POV**

After I had flown back to the village, I gathered Valka, Gobber, Fishlegs and Astrid with me into the Great Hall to discuss what I had seen and to make a plan if the dragon ever came back.

"That dragon is causing almost as much trouble as those three Thunderdrum babies had," Gobber said as soon as we sat down. I chuckled. "I don't think anybody can cause as much trouble as they did, other than the twins," I answered. Gobber's face was set as a stone. "Eh, that's why I said 'almost.'" We all laughed at that.

"Anyways," I continued, "If that dragon does come back, we have do decide what we're going to do." There was a silence as we all thought. "Well," Fishlegs spoke up, "it seems like the dragon would probably go to the cove if and when it returns. It's a safe spot for it. If you set up patrols around the area, Hiccup, we can make sure that when it comes back we know and we can try a more peaceful approach to gain its trust."

"Why did you say 'when it returns' Fishlegs? It flew off the second it had a chance. It's probably not going to come back," Astrid said. "The dragon was injured when you found it, right Hiccup?" Fishlegs glanced at me. I nodded. "If it was attacked by another dragon, it was probably driven from its home. When a dragon finds a suitable place to live again, it most likely stays there."

Everyone turned to me. "Okay, patrols around the cove and the village. We don't want it sneaking up on us. Go in pairs so if it is spotted one person can keep an eye on it while the other gets me or Valka. Agreed?" I looked at the faces around me. They all nodded. "Then we're done."

**~~~~Time lapse- 2 days~~~~**

I vaulted up on Toothless, with Valka right behind me on Cloudjumper. The dragon was spotted in the cove and the messenger had just gotten here. It was decided that both me and my mom would fly to the cove to have a better chance of calming the dragon. I mean, two master dragon trainers were better than one, right?

We landed in the middle of the cove, not really bothering with being stealthy. After all, if the dragon decided to attack us, we could fly off. If she ran, oh well, and if she stayed, better for us. I scanned the trees, and Valka tapped me then pointed to the other side of the cove, where the dragon was laying and watching us. I dismounted and started walking slowly to her. She didn't move, so I reached into the pouch at my side and pulled out a fish, holding it out to her. Her paw moved, and I froze, watching. She didn't make a move to attack me, just kept dragging her claws across the ground. The marks in the dirt looked a lot like letters...

She drew her paw back and I looked at the marks. No, I wasn't wrong. The dragon had written words. Two of them, all capitals, _STAY AWAY. _I paused, took a step forward, and tossed the fish to her. She grabbed it out of the air and swallowed it in one bite. I sat down. She seemed to be less concerned about my presence now that I had shown her I wasn't that dangerous.

"I guess you're pretty mad at me to have ditched me in the middle of the ocean with enemy ships firing at us," I said suddenly. She looked up and dragged her paw against where she had written "Stay away", then started to write something else. I leaned forward to make out the words. It said, _NOT YOU, THE BIG GUY. _I knew right away who she was talking about.

"Snotlout? The guy who rode you into the village?" She growled and gave a small nod. I thought a moment. "Then why did you dive to the ships?" I asked. She dragged her paw again over what she wrote, then printed, _MY OLD HOME RESIDENTS. _I didn't understand what that meant, so I stood up and dragged my foot over the words to wipe them away. "How about coming back to the academy?" I asked. She looked up at me then rose from the ground. I whistled for Toothless and once I was on, flew back to the village explaining to Valka about what had happened the past ten minutes while the dragon followed behind.

When we landed in the village, there was an uproar and suddenly we found that we were surrounded in axes, spears, and swords. I looked around in surprise. What was going on?

Valka started to dismount off of Cloudjumper, but ended up with a sword pointed at her chest when she turned around. "Now, then," she said calmly, as if her life wasn't in the fate of a angry scowling viking. "What is up with all of this?" she asked, gesturing to the circle of vikings.

"I can answer that," a voice came from behind the crowd. The vikings parted and Snotlout walked through. "You see, as a high figure of power because I am an Heir of Berk if something were to happen to you, I was able to tell my beliefs about this dragon to a few others, who seem to agree with me"

"Really?" I asked sarcastically. "And what would these 'beliefs' be?"

"It's simple, actually," Snotlout started in his _My argument makes more sense than yours even if it doesn't _voice. "I don't understand why you decided to allow a dangerous dragon to take up residence on our island, then bring it back to the center of the village, after it has already tried to destroy it in a mound of flames and kill me, twice? Then it tried to escape and failed, and when you finally thought you could take it out flying, it ran away to strange ships we don't know," he said. A few of the vikings in the circle grumbled in agreement. "So, I said this to the village, and some people _agree with me _that we should just kick the dragon out or kill it."

"Okay, first of all, it only tried to burn down the village because you were riding it and forced it to breathe fire. Second, it tried to kill you because it is at least a semi-wild dragon and probably not trained for anyone to ride it other than one or two people. Third, we take it to the village because she is calm at the moment and that is the best time to take action with at dragon, and fourth, _**WE DON'T KILL DRAGONS ANYMORE, **_so DON'T even suggest it while I am the Chief," I shot back, angry how he had this much power in the village. "Vikings, I don't care if you agree with me or not, but as your chief I am ordering you to put down your weapons and leave us."

The vikings solemnly took their weapons and headed towards their houses. Beside me I heard a gasp, and I realised that Valka was probably holding her breath from the sword pointed at her. I glanced at Snotlout. Surely he had something to say.

"Wrong move, Hiccup," he said with venom in his voice. "I don't care if you are Chief, because sometime soon you will not have all the power. I WILL. You just wait," He growled and stormed off.

I looked at Valka. "This may be a problem," I said.

* * *

**OOHH Snotlout is really angry at Hiccup now. I apologize for the short chapter, as I can't really think of a good way to make the story flow and am suffering from writer's block. But I do have a goal that I am aiming for: 10 reviews and 20 follows and faves. Even if you are too lazy to type a long review, just write "GOOD" or "COOL"**

**Also, because you all are smart people, if you have read my story before you may have noticed I changed the chapters a little bit to "make more sense" as my sister put it. So you can if you want go back and reread it, but it is only little things like how I decided on a name for the species and such.**

**I appreciate all of the people who take the time to review and read my story. Thank you all!**


	8. Chapter 7: A Battle Between Alphas

**Hello all! I am back! I thank all of you people who have reviewed my story. This chapter came out later than I wanted it to. But, internet died, parents took away my computer rights, etc etc etc. You guys probably don't care about that.**

**Now, back to the story, let us see if Snotlout's warning is making Hiccup paranoid. Probably not. Well, maybe a little.**

Normal Speech

_Thought speech/Griffin's thought speech_

**Emphasis/ ****Dragon speech**

* * *

**Auster's POV**

It had been a week since Snotlout had threatened Hiccup about taking me to the village, and so far nothing had happened. Hiccup had put me in the Arena, but not in a cage. He came in every day to give me fish and talk to me, and I was starting to appreciate how he is such a caring person. He always put his people before himself, even the dragons, and did his best to be a good Chief. He is someone I would follow into battle without any hesitation.

But I also had my own Chief to follow. It was about two months until the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, and that was when I have to bring the majority of Berk to be destroyed by the Red Deaths. Before, I had no problem with the aspect of doing that, but now a tiny worm of doubt has found its way into my mind.

I was broken out of my thoughts by the clanging of the Arena door. Hiccup was walking through, along with Alpha, and the other people from before. But they also had dragons following them: a blue female Nadder, a brown Gronkle, a green Zippleback, and a red Monstrous Nightmare. I growled softly. That Nightmare was Snotlout's. I looked around, and spotted him looking down from above the dome cage top. Probably not allowed in here for mine and Hiccup's safety.

"Now, everyone, it's time we finally get this dragon in the Book," Hiccup said. I looked over to the group of people, and the big husky male was practically jumping in excitement. Was it really that interesting to find a new dragon species?

"Now onto the names. Astrid, do you have any ideas?" Hiccup asked, looking to the female with the blond braid. She thought a moment, then she opened her mouth, only to be interrupted by the husky one.

"OOH! How about 'Night Nadder'?" He said. The female glared at him, then before Hiccup could say anything, "How about we see the other things first, like the abilities, **then **think of a name?" She said.

**"Astrid is always the one who stays on track"** I jumped and looked to my right where the blue Nadder had spoken. They were quiet the whole time until now and I didn't think that they would speak. The others nodded in agreement. **"Oh, now we get to see the good part,"** The Zippleback said. I turned and saw Hiccup walking toward me, along with the others more hesitantly. Alpha growled quietly in warning at my right. I took a step back from the group. What did they want from me?

Hiccup picked up a big book with a dragon on the cover and a charcoal pencil from a table and started writing something down. The husky male walked up and said things like, "No, its wings fold down around the stomach," and "Make sure you get the spines!" I looked at myself and realised that they were drawing me, probably to put in their book they were talking about. I looked up and saw the husky one walking towards me.

"Fishlegs," Hiccup said warningly. Fishlegs just shook his head and reached down towards my wings. I growled and stepped back, only to be drowned out by two other growls from the Gronkle and Alpha. **"****He isn't going to hurt you,"**Alpha said. **"****He just wants to look at your wings"** the Gronkle piped in. I relaxed and unfurled my wings, laying them on the ground so they had a clear view of them. Fishlegs gasped. I looked down and realised what he had seen. My wingspan covered almost all the way across the Arena. Fishlegs got out some rope and lined it on the edge of my wings, first one than the other. He casually called out "80 feet," but me and the other dragons could see that he was extremely excited.

Astrid walked up next, casually holding a double-bladed axe in her hands. The weapon said danger, but she had a relaxed posture and a friendly look to her. Hiccup seemed to like her, too, so I decided to trust her. She walked down towards my tail and tapped it with the tip of the axe, hearing the _clink _sound. Then she put the axe down and walked over to the table, picking up a piece of paper and shaking it in front of my face. It was annoying, so I swiped at it with my claws, leaving it in four strips of shredded paper. She whistled softly.

All of a sudden, I heard Hiccup and the Alpha say at the same time, "**It's way **too quiet." I looked in surprise. It was like they could read each other's minds!

Hiccup turned to the blond twins behind him. "Ruffnut, Tuffnut, you take over from here on firepower" They jumped up and ran past me to the other side of the Arena, grabbing some barrels with targets painted on them, and rolled them into a pyramid. Then they stood next to me, pointed to the targets, and at the same time, said "FIRE!" I shot a blast of fire at each barrel, either knocking them off the pyramid or setting them on fire. The Twins then decided to smash their helmets together at that, followed by the Zippleback doing the same. The Arena was temporarily filled with the sound of crackling fire, yelling people and smashing heads.

After a few minutes when it was all calm again, Hiccup looked up at the cloudy sky and said, "How about a race before the first storm comes?" Everyone nodded, and Hiccup opened the gate. As soon as it was big enough, a shrill whistle rang out and the Nightmare ran out, was jumped on by Snotlout, and flew off. Hiccup watched them for a few seconds, then shrugged and mounted Alpha.

"Three... two... one... GO!" I took off running, using my speed to get ahead of the others and jumped off the edge, followed by the other riders. Astrid was quickly behind me, Hiccup sped off in front of us, and the Twins ended up running into Fishlegs and made their dragons fall. I looked behind me. Astrid was gaining fast, and Hiccup was still ahead. Time to change tactics.

I flapped my wings hard and rose up into the clouds, gaining height with every beat. Once I came to a reasonably high place, I folded my wings down and started to dive, shooting out of the clouds and past Astrid, then Hiccup. I unfurled my wings and skimmed along the ocean before rising up to where Hiccup was. He glanced at me before smirking, then leaning down and whispering something to Alpha. Before I could do anything, they shot off again. Maybe I was faster than Alpha on land, but I couldn't beat him in the air.

Astrid quickly flew up next to me, us each gaining a little on each other before losing it again. We did this for a few minutes before Hiccup came back and said, "I win. Let's set down for a little bit." I grumbled and Astrid did a little pouty face before laughing and us heading down to a nearby island.

"Wow! That was a rush, wasn't it, Bud?" Hiccup asked, scratching Alpha behind the ear. He jumped off and grabbed Astrid's hand, both of them silently walking off. Alpha blew some fire at the grass and lay down on the ashes, while the Nadder walked off, chirping about finding fish.

**"How long have Hiccup and Astrid been together?" **I asked Alpha, gesturing to where the two walked off. He opened an eye, blinked, and shut it again. **"Alpha?" **I asked, earning a slight flinch from the latter. Did he not like being called that? I decided to take a risk. **"Uh... Toothless?"** I asked, using the name I heard Hiccup referring to him as. His head rose off his paws, and he stared at me for a moment before saying **"Astrid first seemed to like Hiccup about 24 seasons ago. I don't mind her, and she makes Hiccup happy."** He looked off to where they left, before plopping his head on his paws again. I decided not to push it and walked toward a large oak, wrapping my tail around a branch, pulling myself off the ground, curling my wings around myself and falling asleep.

**Hiccup's POV**

I glanced back at where the dragons were, slightly worried. We were on an unfirmiliar island, separating ourselves from our dragons, with at least Snotlout after me. You could say I was a tiny bit worried. Of course, we could use our dragon calls, but still...

I was broken out of my concentration by a punch to the arm. I winced, even though I put padding there since it happened so much. I turned to Astrid. She had a look that meant she was up to something.

"Let's play a game, Hiccup," she said, smiling.

"Since when were you one to play games?" I asked.

"Since you started to zone off. Now shush," she commanded, holding up a finger to my lips. "I know this is an old game, but deal with it. I'm going to hide. You wait thirty seconds, count them out loud, then come and try to find me. Got it?" she asked. I nodded. "Good" she kissed me on the cheek and ran off into the forest. I started to count.

"One, two three..." I was looking around myself for anyplace she could hide. "Four, five six..." I realised she wouldn't hide near me, and was probably deeper in the forest. "Seven, eight nine..." I was broken out of my search when I heard Astrid cry, "Hiccup!" then a Nadder call. I ran towards the sound.

I came into a small clearing with a huge hole in the ground with Astrid inside it. I crouched down. "Take my hand!" I said. I reached my hand down and grabbed hers, pulling her up with all my might.

"Hiccup! Behind you!" Astrid yelled. I started to turn before I felt someone kick me in the back and tumbled down into the pit on top of Astrid. I rolled off her and grabbed Inferno, Astrid gripping her axe. I looked up at the figure who kicked me. A burly figure with a smug smile and a curled helmet.

Snotlout. I should've know he would have followed us. He didn't say anything, just laughed and turned to look at something behind him. Another person walked up, holding a crossbow pointed at us. Stormfly might not have heard Astrid's call, but I know Toothless would almost never move. I called for him, waited a few seconds, and smiled when I heard his return call.

Ten seconds later Toothless came running through the trees, quickly followed by the other dragon and Stormfly a little bit behind. "Over here, Toothless!" I called. He saw me and started running, but was stopped by a thrown bola tangling his legs. Before any of us could react, five men jumped on him and muzzled him. I heard a squawk and saw Stormfly being done the same. I turned to the new dragon. She was standing still, staring at the man with the crossbow. Astrid took the chance of the distraction and threw her axe at him. He ducked just in time and shot the crossbow, hitting Astrid's boot and pinning it to the ground.

"Unless you want her and your dragons to die, you'll put your fancy fire sword away" the man said. I frowned and Toothless snarled. I turned to Astrid. She was holding her foot. The arrow must've nicked her. I turned Inferno off and clipped the sword to my side.

"Now," the man said, turning and picking something off the ground. A whip. "Let's see if your Alpha beats mine." I was surprised. Did this man have another Alpha? I don't think I would want to have another Bewilderbeast battle. The man uncurled the whip and cracked it into the ground. "A battle of Alphas, if you will. Take off the Fury's muzzle" he said, then looked to the new dragon and cracked the whip against the ground.

"Griffin," the dragons pupils narrowed to slits. "Attack Hiccup."

* * *

**A battle between Alphas it is, then.**

**Tell me if you enjoyed, what you would like to see, and what you don't like.**


	9. Chapter 8: A Prick on the Hand

**EHHHHH! HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYBODY! WOO AMERICA AND... STUFF.**

**I want to thank two peeps who are there: DracoDraconis55 and silverwolvesarecool. You two rock, and thanks for reviewing and reading my story!**

**Err, anyway... last time we left off, a battle between Alphas would commence, with Auster (AKA Griffin) as the test dummy.**

Normal Speech

_Thought Speech/ Griffin's thought __Speech_

**Emphasis/ Dragon Speech**

* * *

**Auster's POV**

My view on the battle was very fuzzy. I saw Alpha and Stormfly caught and helpless, and Hiccup and Astrid in a pit, with Chief holding the whip and cracking it against the ground menacingly, but I couldn't move a muscle. I was frozen, that is, until Chief gave an order. My vision darkened. It was like my body was that of a different person, (or dragon, whatever) and I was watching from the outside. I turned to Hiccup. He was helpless, stuck in a hole. All I had to do was fire.

But I couldn't. A different force was holding me back. Alpha, the dragon. He was fighting against me, against Chief and the whip. I wasn't sure who would win. It seemed like my wings were tied by ropes and the two were tugging me back and forth. I was stopped in my tracks.

"What are you doing?! Attack him NOW!" Chief yelled. I had never heard him yell before. This must've been either serious acting or he was actually losing. He flung the whip at me. It hit my side, and the crack drowned out the buzzing of Alpha. I turned to Hiccup once again, this time letting loose a stream of white fire. He dodged out of the way just in time, and his mouth moved, but I couldn't hear it. I couldn't hear anything but the cracking of a whip. My world was almost silent.

Hiccup continued to dodge my fire attacks, so I landed and crawled into the pit where he was, using my fast speed and reflexes to swipe at him. I made some pretty close hits, nicking his left arm, slashing his chest slightly, and even knocking his metal leg off. He fell to the ground, and I raised my paw for the final strike.

But suddenly, the force telling me to attack Hiccup became weaker. Alpha's buzzing broke through the silence and stopped me. I turned to where the Chief was, only to find him unconscious. Astrid was finishing off the rest of the crew, despite the nasty cut on her ankle. Snotlout was shaking with fear, desperately holding onto the whip and trying to take control of me. I snarled and jumped out of the pit, pinning him down with my paw and knocking the whip out of his reach. I heard a slight groan behind me as Hiccup climbed out of the pit.

The buzzing in my head stopped and the darkness that comes with an Alpha's control vanished. I looked at Snotlout, then Chief, then Snotlout again, before batting Snotlout over the head with my paw and knocking him out, then padding over to where Chief lay. I sniffed him, expecting him to be out cold, but to my surprise, his eyes opened.

"Good work, Griffin," He whispered. "Now you have shown them that they can trust you. Use that to your advantage." He closed his eyes again and his breathing became even. So he _**was **_acting. I turned to Hiccup, who was adjusting his leg and clicked it into Alpha's stirrup.

"Let's go. I don't want to stay on this island any longer than you all probably do. Astrid, call Hookfang. He's probably somewhere on this island. Griffin, carry Snotlout. If he tries anything funny, drop him, let him fall, then catch him," Hiccup said. Astrid did a Monstrous Nightmare call, and I grabbed Snotlout in a firm grip before the Nightmare could show up.

A few minutes later, the red Nightmare from before showed up. He snarled at me. **"****What are you doing with Snotlout?" ** Alpha cut me off before I could say anything. **"Hiccup said for her to carry him. I enforce that order, Hookfang,"** he said calmly. Hookfang growled but didn't challenge him. Hiccup gave the signal and we all took off for Berk. I tried to stay away from Hookfang, since he kept glaring at me, and Alpha, because I was afraid I would do or say something that would make him angry. So I flew next to Astrid and her Nadder, Stormfly.

As I leveled off beside Astrid, I felt Snotlout stir in my paws, then grip tightly to my leg. I looked down at him. He had his eyes closed and was praying. After a few seconds, they opened and he seemed confident. He looked over to my right where Astrid was and said, "Hey, babe." Astrid sighed and started arguing with him about how she was not his "Babe," and I zoned off after about a few seconds.

_You're cargo is trying to escape,_ a voice said. Griffin! Without even looking, I dropped Snotlout, letting him fall and scream, then dived after him and caught his shoulders just before he hit the water. I flapped my wings and rose up to my original spot. Stormfly chirped to my right. **"Can I please carry him?"** She asked. **"I love playing Drop Fetch!"** I shrugged. **"Sure. Have fun,"** I said, tossing him over and letting Stormfly carry him for the rest of the way, occasionally dropping him at Astrid's command.

We landed in the forests of Berk after an hour of flying. While Hiccup and Astrid dealt with Snotlout, Hookfang and Stormfly were mock fighting and Alpha was sleeping, so I wandered off in search of some food. I came across an area full of maple trees. Griffin would love to eat the bark of those, so I might as well try it. I blew a small amount of fire at the bark of a tree until it was charred, then used my upper fangs to pull it off of the trunk. I broke a small piece off and swallowed it. It tasted good. Slightly crunchy but with the syrup of the maple tree on the inside. I broke off another piece, and another. Soon the large piece was gone. I lay down contentedly on the ground, full and sleepy.

"How about Maplefang?" I heard Astrid's voice ask from behind me.

* * *

**Hiccup's POV**

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Griffin (was that her actual name? No idea) wander off, but I had a bigger problem to deal with. Snotlout. Currently he was tied at the wrists and ankles and gagged, standing against a large tree with Astrid throwing her axe right next to him to break him down. Every time Astrid's axe made a _thump_ against the tree, Snotlout's eyes would bug out trying to see it, and he would cry out in fear. After a few more throws, I gestured to Astrid to stop. Snotlout visibly shrank, crouching down onto the ground away from her. Astrid smirked.

I walked up to Snotlout, grabbed the collar of his shirt, picked him up, slammed him against the tree, tore off his gag and said, calmly, "Why, did you not stop the man from attacking us?" I didn't think a man could look more surprised and scared in my life, but Snotlout was certainly terrified at how easily I picked him up and how calm my voice was, even though I was obviously infuriated.

"I-i-i-i-I m-m-m-made a deal with him," 'Lout said, quivering in his boots. It was shameful to watch, honestly, and I didn't really like embarrassing a man that much, even if he really did deserve it. I pulled him away from the tree and tossed him to the ground. He stared up into my face, obviously looking for something to turn the situation around, but all he saw was the unspoken question, _What kind of deal? _Snotlout sighed, then said, "I made a deal with when he killed you I could take over Berk as Chief, with his help."

I gasped. Surely even Snotlout wouldn't go that low as to stand by as a man murdered another? I turned away and started walking to where Griffin wandered off to. I was even more grateful of Astrid and her for saving my life and catching Snotlout. Astrid quickly caught up to me, and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

"A new name for the dragon. She obviously knew those people, seeing how easily they took control over her. If we called her Griffin it would remind us and her about her past, and nobody wants to remember that." Astrid was silent for a while. We broke through the brambles to find the dragon scorching the bark of some maple trees, pulling it off with her fangs, then taking a bite of the bark. She obviously seemed to enjoy it and ate it quickly.

Astrid watched the dragon for a few seconds. "How about Maplefang? It matches a food she likes to eat and has a nice ring to it." The dragon jumped up in surprise to see us, then tilted her head like she was thinking. After a moment, she nodded and made a happy purr-growl sound. At least, I think it was happy.

"Maplefang it is then," I said. "But we still need to think of a species name. Maybe something about the spines on her wings and neck?" I asked. This time Maplefang beat Astrid, scratching her paw over the dirt. Astrid didn't know what she was doing, but I leaned forward to see what she had written. _SCORCHSPINE, _it said. Astrid nodded and I scratched her head. "Sounds good."

Maplefang seemed to like me scratching her, like most dragons do, so I moved onto the top of her neck. She made a happy sound and leaned into my hand. I looked at Astrid. She was scratching her too and rubbing her nose as well. We both made sure to keep clear of the spines. Who knew what kind of venom might be in those!

After a few seconds, Astrid started to scratch Maplefang on the nape of her neck. Usually, dragons fall into a blissful sleep and don't wake for days at that, but Maplefang started acting strangely. Her pupils narrowed into slits and she started growling. It sounded like a wolf, her growl did. She shook her head and lunged at Astrid, barely missing her fingertips with her teeth. I ran back a few steps and called for Toothless as Astrid started slowly backing away from a growling Maplefang. She lunged at Astrid again, but seemed to know what would happen and twisted her head so that the spines on her neck grazed Astrid's hand, making her scream.

"Astrid!"

* * *

**Man I just love doing these cliffhangers and drama. It seems that just when Hiccup and the others escape from one danger, another sneaks up behind them and strikes their blind spot. Not fair, I know, but it makes the plot interesting and helps define the abilities of my dragon and Auster's relationship with Hiccup. Flame if you want, I know it doesn't seem right.**

**If you liked it, a review would be appreciated! OH and also, thanks again to ****DracoDraconis55 and silverwolvesarecool for helping me achieve my 10 review goal! Small steps, because I know not many people like reviewing. I'm one of those people...**

**May Odin bless your day and Thor have the sun shine!**


	10. Chapter 9: Begin the Journey

**So... now that Auster has been named, should I put that for the POV? Or keep it as Auster? Because I realise that Auster sound's like a guy's name, and my main character is a girl...**

**Dry run, Maplefang**

Normal Speech

_Thought Speech/ Griffin's thought speech_

**Emphasis/ Dragon Speech**

* * *

**Maplefang's POV**

Astrid and Hiccup were scratching me on my head and neck. It felt good, so I let them keep going. Until Astrid scratched the nape of my neck. I couldn't see her hand, and that area is where my scales are soft enough for a dull knife to puncture. I tried to stay calm, but my instincts were telling me to attack this now-threataning figure. I was able to resist it until I heard a voice. _What are you waiting for?! That's an enemy! Attack her!_

Of course, Griffin had to decide to speak at that moment and let my instincts win. So I growled and jumped at her, barely missing her hand. Hiccup scrambled back but seemed too shocked to do anything. I lunged for Astrid's hand again, but I knew that she would pull back. I put more power into my jump and when I passed by her hand, tilted my head so my spines grazed her palm. She screamed.

I snapped back out of my trance and looked at Astrid. Her hand was bleeding, cut in two places by my spines. I stepped back. What had I done?

Hiccup jumped in front of me, waving his fire sword, but this time he was trying to attack me. I jumped away and put my head in my paws, watching them. Hiccup kneeled down next to Astrid, who was now curled up in a ball. I knew what my venom could do. It takes effect within a few minutes. It causes a fever and other symptoms, eventually rising in temperature to a dangerous level. If the cure wasn't administered within a week, the victim would enter a coma.

Our species used this to keep other dragons away from vital areas on our wings and neck from bites and other claw-to-claw combats. Normally it wasn't so serious for dragons, since they heal quickly and are usually large enough where it doesn't effect them, so the venom usually wears off within a few days. But humans are small enough where it can get to a dangerous level. We needed to get the cure.

I started to walk to Astrid, wanting to comfort her and apologize, but Alpha Toothless (I decided to call him that, but only in my head) jumped in my way and growled at me, Stormfly right behind him. I stepped back a little and found myself suddenly circled with Nadder spines. I wanted to fly out, but it was too risky. The two could shoot me down any second, so I lay down.

Hiccup picked up Astrid and turned to Alpha Toothless, laying her on the front of his saddle and climbing on. He told Stormfly to follow him and looked over to me before taking off. I watched them for a few seconds before I realised something.

They left Snotlout behind. I didn't want to, but I ran back.

* * *

**Hiccup's POV**

I was back at the village within a few minutes, calling for a healer the second we landed. Astrid had to be okay. She _**had**_ to.

Soon I was in the healer's hut with Astrid laying down on the bed, covered in blankets but still shivering. The healer said her fever wasn't too high yet, but I was still worried. Toothless was next to me, crooning and nudging Astrid. I sighed. Just when everything seemed safe, happy, all better, another thing had to come. My trust with that dragon was getting smaller the worse Astrid got.

One of the villagers opened the door. "Chief! Snotlout is here, with that dragon!"

"Give me a minute." I stood up and walked over to the door, glancing back at Astrid. I really didn't want to see Maplefang again. She caused Astrid's sickness. I opened the door to find Snotlout being taken away to the prison. I gestured for them to keep going. I didn't want to deal with him again. Maplefang was crouched down a few feet away from me, keeping her eyes averted and her posture low. I could tell she was trying to apologize. The only question is, _could I forgive her?_

I kneeled down so that I was eye level with her, and placed my hand on her snout. She looked up at me for a brief second before looking at the ground again. I rubbed her nose. "It's okay," I whispered. "I'm not the type that holds grudges." Maplefang kept her eyes on the ground, but started to scratch something on the dirt. I leaned back, waiting for her to finish. _I KNOW WHERE THE CURE IS. MY HOME ISLAND, _it said.

"Her home island," I whispered. The island with the man who tried to kill me, the man who could take control of Maplefang just as easy as any Alpha. Did I want to go there and risk my life again, when I just got back from the dangers of those people? It was obvious. I had to, to help Astrid. I stood up.

"Gobber!" I called. The man came lumbering up to me.

"What do ya' need?" He asked.

"Get Valka. Tell her to pack up for a journey. I'm not sure how long. Until I return, you're in charge of the village," I said.

"Hiccup, are you sure about what you're doing? You're leaving? I don't think I'm very Chief material, you know." Gobber said, looking worried.

"It should just be for a few days. Please, Gobber. I need to do this. The cure for Astrid is on an unknown island. I can't go alone, and I can't leave her here like this," I begged. He sighed, but nodded and walked off.

An hour later, the village was saying their goodbyes as we took off, following Maplefang south. I hadn't really gone this way before, and it wasn't on my map because I didn't see much in that direction. I guess it would take more than a few hours to fly to where we're going.

**THREE HOURS LATER**

"Hiccup?" My mother asked me. I looked over to my left where she was flying. It was dark now and took me a few seconds to find her figure. "I know you want to keep flying, but it's been a long day. Also, I think if we keep flying for much longer the dragons will tire out. We need to set down." I nodded reluctantly. We needed rest and food. I urged Toothless up to where Maplefang was flying, staring straight ahead.

"Maplefang," she turned her head to me. "We need to set down for the night. Any islands nearby that would be safe?" She made a rumbling sound and started to descend towards a shape I hadn't seen.

We landed inside a small cave. I walked towards the back and found it blocked by stones. I felt a cold wind blow in behind me and looked outside, seeing storm clouds coming in. Winter snows would follow us for a while.

"Looks like it's going to be a cold night," I said. Valka nodded, but the dragons grumbled as if to say we were wrong. I watched the three walk back to where the wall of stones was. They looked like they were searching for something, scrabbling against the rock as if to scratch off a secret. Cloudjumper made a "I discovered something" sound, and all of us crowded around what it was.

"Oh my," Valka said in wonder. I pushed through the crowd of dragons and saw what they did. I gasped.

A hole in the wall showed a huge cavern, lit up by an unseen orange light. All kinds of dragons were inside, sleeping, playing, eating. Toothless shot a small plasma blast and broke the wall down, allowing us to walk through. A wave of heat hit me, and as I reached the edge of the cavern and looked down I saw magma. We were inside a volcano!

"It's beautiful," Valka whispered, looking all around us. Not only was the cavern impressive, but there were all kinds of dragons inside. Nadders, Snaptrappers, Timberjacks, Monstrous Nightmares. Toothless walked out from behind Cloudjumper, obviously curious. As soon as the dragons saw him, they bowed down. We walked through the throng of dragons until we came to a more or less secluded area that still was hit by the warmth. My mother, Toothless, Cloudjumper and myself piled together, but Maplefang lay off to one side, watching the dragons around us.

I studied the Scorchspine. Since I had been surrounded by dragons for ten years, I learned to read the body language and find out the mood of dragons. Maplefang seemed downcast, probably still feeling bad about what she did to Astrid. I shrugged. Once a dragon made up its mind, it probably wasn't going to change it. Besides, the warm hand of sleep was closing in on me. I closed my eyes, feeling safe, and fell asleep.

* * *

**What do you think? Enjoy? If you're saying "OMG HICCUP IS TOO FORGIVING" think again. He doesn't hold grudges, but his trust is broken. Tricky, tricky. Yes, he did forgive Maplefang, but he probably isn't going to let her come near Astrid any time soon.**

**Guest:**** I may have Auster and Griffin return to their normal bodies, but I don't think I'm going to make a sequel to this. Unless you guys say you really want one. I'm thinking of having the story wrap up around chapter 15.**

_**Also, my winter break is almost over, so school will take some of my writing time. Be aware!**_

**Leave a review if you have questions, comments, or just feel like saying something random.**

**Have a nice day everyone!**


	11. Chapter 10: The Prince of Dragons

**So, um... my computer broke, so I'm writing this from my tablet, which I hope explains the short and delayed chapter. I apologize and am working on fixing it. This is just a little inside look at how the dragons treat Hiccup and Toothless.**

* * *

**Maplefang's POV**

After endangering Astrid's life and breaking Hiccup's trust, I decided that I would stand guard over the group as they slept. All was peaceful, with the other dragons deciding that sleep was more important than checking out the unexpected visitors. Then, at aboug midnight, a Changewing wandered over. It bothered me at first that I could smell him but not sed him until he materialized right in front of me. He tilted his head curiously.

**I get that a Stormcutter and the Alpha is in front of me, but who are the humans? **He asked. I looked behind me at the small pile of sleeping bodies.

**The female rides the Stormcutter,Cloudjumper, is the mother of the male, and is named Valka. The male rides Alpha and is named Hiccup.**The Changewing gasped. I looked at him and shook my head, not understanding.

**That is the Prince of Dragons?! The one who killed the Red Death, fought the black Bewilderbeast and rides the Night Fury Toothless, also the current Alpha?! That is him, right in front of my eyes?**

**Um.. yes. But why do you call him Prince of Dragons? His name is Hiccup.**

**WheN he beat the Red Death, dragons all around heard and started calling him that. When he beat the Bewilderbeast and his Night Fury became Alpha, it was spread as far as dragons went about him and the new Alpha. Everyone is grateful for what he has done. I can't believe he is right in front of me! I need to tell all the dragons!**

**Please! Don't! At least for the night. We have a long journey ahead of us and the last thing we need is tired riders.**

The Changewing agreed, although he made me promise that we would stop here on our way back. I watched him fly over into a tunnel, and I lay down in a more comfortable position for the remaining night.

Not even ten minutes later, a Gronkle flew out of the same tunnel and landed in front of me, asking about the Prince of Dragons. I sighed. This was going to be a long night.

* * *

**Again, I apologize about the underlined text, short vhapter, and delayed update. I'm not used to writing on my tablet. Also, typos. Lots and lots of typos. *facepalm***


	12. Chapter 11: The Arrival

**Hey guys! My computer still isn't fixed, but I'm using my sisters. I hope the long chapter makes up for the delay. This chapter will have many perspective changes to fit with the scenes. On with the story!**

* * *

**Hiccup's POV**

Usually I'm the last one to wake up out of, well, almost everyone in Berk. Especially now. But something woke me up before Mom and the dragons. Some sort of presence. I opened my eyes and was surprised to see about ten dragons standing about five feet away from me, staring at me.

"Uh… Hello?" I said weakly to the dragons and doing a small wave. They all looked really excited to see me. One Gronkle was wagging her whole body like she couldn't wait to pounce on me. Was I their new toy? I crawled back a few feet.

Quickly I woke up the dragons and my mother. Toothless wrapped himself protectively around me and growled when he saw the other dragons, causing them to back up a little, and Valka climbed on top of Cloudjumper.

"Let's get out of here," she whispered. I nodded and mounted Toothless but realized our guide was not with us. I looked around and found her being dragged out of a tunnel by a Changewing, obviously annoyed. She kept growling and snapping at her captor, but he always jumped out of the way just in time. He dropped her in front of us with an _I told you so_ look.

She snorted at the Changewing and started to talk with Toothless, them exchanging multiple huffs, croons, growls, and small roars before Maplefang lined up beside me and took off, me and Mom right behind her. We flew out of the cave we came in by and headed south once more.

* * *

**Maplefang's POV**

I looked back once at the dragons in the volcano. They were sad and angry, but quickly calmed down by the male Changewing I talked to earlier. I mentally hit myself, remembering how I promised that we would stay there on our way back. I was slightly worried about what would happen. Would they imprison us? No, I don't think many dragons could or would do that. I would just have to hope for the best.

We flew on for a few more hours before landing on another island for a noon meal. Hiccup and Valka caught about twelve fish and cooked theirs, tossing us the rest of the raw ones to eat. I would never eat raw fish if I was a human; only one person on my island would actually do it willingly. It was slimy and gross. But as a dragon, fish made up most of my diet, so I ate them quickly

My last fish was slowly sliding away. I grabbed it with my paws and looked up to see Alpha Toothless pulling on the tail. I pulled it out of his grasp and ate it in one bite, laughing at his shocked look. He pounced on me and we wrestled to the joy of the two Vikings and Cloudjumper, who was too disciplined and regal to even want to partake in our silliness. Hiccup joined in, though, cutting in front of me and trying to push away Alpha Toothless, but Alpha just batted at Hiccup and then plopped his head on his chest, then licked Hiccup as the latter struggled to escape.

"Toothless!" Hiccup yelled, mildly annoyed. "You know that doesn't wash out!" Hiccup flicked his arms at a laughing Toothless, making him stop from his mocking. We settled down to watch the clouds above us, enjoying the brief rest period. So far we hadn't seen any dragons on this island, which was a little bit surprising. Most of the time when something new lands on a island nearby a dragon, they go to check it out. Especially if that dragon is territorial. I mentally shrugged. No reason to worry about it.

* * *

I had been dozing for about half and hour when I heard the others moving around, packing up the few things we took out and putting out the fire. I didn't want to get up, so I stayed on my back, letting the sun warm my stomach.

Suddenly I felt something pressing against my side. I opened my eyes and saw Valka crouched down next to me, looking at the mark on my stomach. I had kept it hidden the whole time since I landed on Berk, having it already covered by my wings and making sure no one flew under me or had a chance to see it. But now, with my wings spread out as I lay on the grass, I had forgotten about it and Valka saw it.

"Hiccup, come look at this," she said softly, still thinking I was asleep. I closed my eyes just until they were small slits and I could kind of see the two figures. Hiccup walked up, as well as Toothless, and the two gasped softly. Hiccup kneeled next to Valka and gently traced the symbol. I winced. I could still feel the hot iron pressing against my scales in the branding process the Bandits do with all their dragons. Hiccup's hand pulled back and I opened my eyes, pretended to be surprised and rolled onto my feet, quickly wrapping my wings around my stomach. I wouldn't meet his eyes and walked away from the group as they finished packing up and took off.

Hiccup and Valka were constantly trying to fly under me to look at my mark again, but I flew right above the ocean so that couldn't happen. Every time they tried to look at it, it made me think about how I had to betray them eventually. I really didn't want to. But, how could I? As long as Chief had hold of a whip, his strength could overpower an Alpha's. Of course, to get rid of the source of power behind the whip broke the control, like when Astrid took him out.

A few hours later it was dark and a storm was blowing in. We settled down on another island, ate a quick meal, and lay down to rest, me hanging from a tree and Hiccup and Valka under their dragons' wings. I closed my eyes.

* * *

**Toothless's POV**

I slowly opened my eyes. The world was white with the first snow of winter. I looked down under my wing. Hiccup was safely held by me and tucked warm against my side. I shook the snow off my head and looked to Cloudjumper, who was already awake. He hadn't moved, of course, so as not to wake up Valka, and was completely unbothered by the snow covering him. He did live in an ice palace before he came to Berk, though. I looked to my left where Maplefang had hung last night, surprised to find that she was not there. I turned to Cloudjumper.

**Where did Maplefang go?** I asked.

**Oh. She left a while ago. Something about wild dragons, or fish. I'm not too sure.** Cloudjumper looked off to the side.** I was just waking up as she left.**

**Whatever. As soon as she comes back, we need to get moving. It's been two nights already, and Astrid is probably getting worse by every sunrise. Hiccup will break if her sickness becomes severe.** I said, reminded about how it was Maplefang who cut Astrid and made her sick. Anger filled me for a few seconds before I shook it off. She must've had a good reason. Right? She seemed like a good dragon and I wanted to at least be able to be around her without wanting to blast her to pieces. Hiccup would not like that, and I at least _try_ to go with what Hiccup is okay with.

Unless it's Terrors. Annoying, stealing thieves. They would take all my fish before I became Alpha. And even after, they would come up, bow to me and then steal a fish from my paws! I never liked Terrors, never will, no matter how much Hiccup tries to get me to tolerate them.

Footsteps brought me out of my internal ranting. I turned to see Maplefang holding fish in her mouth, wings covering her stomach like always. I narrowed my eyes. What was that mark on her stomach? It was of the dragon that was on the boats she dived to, and the shields of the soldiers who attacked us that were with that man with the whip. I growled softly. I don't know how, but that man's power over her was greater than mine. A unknown dragon.

Maplefang walked up to me, bowed her head, and dropped the fish in front of me. She kept her eyes averted and backed away quickly, walking back into the woods. I could hear cracking and a few seconds later she came out with branches and wood in her jaws. Again, she kept away from me and dropped the wood on the campfire pit, blowing a small white flame onto it and catching the wood. Hiccup stirred as the air became warmer and rose out of my paws.

He yawned, stretching his arms. "How longer until we get to your island, Maplefang?" He asked. I looked over to her, the same question in my eyes. She started scratching the dirt. I had figured out that she wrote like Hiccup did to speak to him things that didn't work in gestures. I couldn't understand them, though I tried, so I waited for Hiccup to read them out loud. "Oh." Hiccup brightened up. "She says we should get there about an hour after taking off. Good. Let's eat and pack up. I'll go get some- oh," He said, turning and seeing the pile of fish by my head. "Toothless, did you get this?" I shook my head and gestured to Maplefang.

"Hiccup, I'm starving," Valka said suddenly, having silently woken up. "Are you going to make that fish, or should I? I don't think I can burn it too much," she teased. Hiccup got a slightly panicked look and started to gather up two fish and put them over the fire. He told me about how bad his mothers cooking was. He said it was worse than Astrid's, though after trying Astrid's grilled fish, I don't know how anyone could make it worse. Astrid wasn't know for her cooking skill.

Soon we were all full of fish and ready to take off. We rose off the ground and settled into a smooth glide. Hiccup and I passed the time practicing his gliding, since we didn't go flying much after he became Chief. I was much better on catching him now, after a few minor modifications to my tail. Valka had constant questions about it and Hiccup tried to explain it in the most simple way he could, because she didn't understand much about blacksmithing.

Hiccup was just explaining how he made the leather gliding wings when Maplefang roared. Her roar sounded like a distorted mix between a wolf growl in the beginning and evolving into an eagle screech. I certainly caught my attention. I turned to see her zooming off, and I saw the island she was heading to. Had it been an hour already? I flapped my wings and streaking ahead of her.

As soon as I got close enough to see the island, I could tell something was wrong. Very wrong. The forests were burned down, barely showing anything growing from the ashes like they should. The ground was riddled with boulders, arrows, armor and swords. A village in the distance was rubble. There were no dragons anywhere. I snorted. How could we find the cure here? Earlier Maplefang had said that the cure was leaves from a special tree made into a tea.

Maplefang landed next to me, undeterred, and walked through the ashes and burned forest to the center of the island. The island was quite small compared to Berk. A large mountain rose up from the ground. She led us around it until we came to an area that looked as if it was once a cave, but was covered by a wall of rocks. I sighed. There wasn't a tree on this island.

**Maplefang, just accept that there are no more trees on this island and that you failed,** I said as she paced around the wall, mumbling. She looked up, a fire in her eyes that was frightening.

**No. They have to be here. Maybe... maybe the covered the entrance when they started to attack. That must be it.** Maplefang stopped pacing and faced the wall. She let out a loud, long roar and started to recite something that surprised me.

_**Oasis Dragons, hear my plea**_

_**I would like to speak to thee**_

_**I bear the mark of a Wolf-Fang crest**_

_**Please let me in, so I may rest**_

We sat in silence for a few seconds, thinking that Maplefang had gone completely mad, before we heard another roar. Loud and long, like Maplefang's, then a response:

**_Oasis Dragons heard your plea_**

**_They would like to speak to thee_**

**_Our special mark upon our chest_**

**_We let you in, so you may rest_**

Maplefang looked excited, and recited another chant:

_**Someone I know wants to see**_

_**How I like to speak to thee**_

_**They bear no harm to your special crest**_

_**Please let us in, so we may rest**_

Then roared once again, quiet and short. We waited for a moment before a sudden rumbling sounded and Maplefang stepped back, us following suit. A Whispering Death burst through the walls and looked to us. It did a small bow and Maplefang bowed back before walking in, us following and the Death making up the rear. I tensed, waiting for the worst.

* * *

**Man! I have been wanting to write this for a while. I hope you enjoy. Oh, and I'm wondering if I can add some OC dragons to the story, to make it more interesting. Of course, I'm asking if that is alright with you first. If a lot of you like the idea, I may also allow people to send in their OC dragons by PM for me to add to the story.**

**Leave a review if you liked it, didn't like it, or just have something random to say!**

**Have a bright day!**


	13. Chapter 12: Oasis Dragons

**In case you got confused, I changed my name. My name was previously Dovewing268 and is now GracefulLeopard. Why? Because I can.**

**OC dragons will be added, starting with some I have made up in the past and adding some of yours sent to me by PM, with minor editing. More details at the bottom, lets get on with the story!**

**Warning: This chapter will include the words "Dragon/dragons" excessively. Just thought I would warn you.**

* * *

**Maplefang's POV**

I led the way into the cave, with the others hesitantly following me. They thought I was crazy when I led them to a cave-in site. Or so they thought. I remembered that the Oasis Dragons had to block it to keep the Oasis untouched by passing humans and dragons after the island was destroyed outside.

The narrow cave opened up into a huge cavern, filled with many different dragons. They all walked around with a purpose. In the Oasis, anyone who wished to join and knew the code could, and every dragons helped them survive. I heard Hiccup and Valka gasp behind me as they saw the scene. We stood in the center of the large cavern, drawing a few passing glances by the wandering dragons but nothing more. The Whispering Death disappeared into a tunnel, probably to get the Council dragons.

I looked around at the dragons and how they were working. The Oasis hadn't changed much since five years ago when me and Griffin were hiding out here for a month and helped them recover from a earthquake. I knew a good amount of how the place worked, though I realized the others would be completely confused. I padded over to where Hiccup was standing, ready to translate for him what the Council would say.

About a minute passed and three dragons came out of the cave the Death had disappeared into: a blue Monstrous Nightmare, a yellow Typhoomerang and the Whispering Death following them. They, as well as all the dragons who were walking around, bore the Oasis Dragon symbol: a crescent moon bordered by five spiral circles, painted with leaves or berries onto their chests, neck, or foreheads. I gave a small nod and waited for them to speak as they halted in front of us.

**Cloudspitter says that you called for an important reason. What is it?** The Nightmare asked, nodding to the Whispering Death who was next to them.

**I have accidentally poisoned a friend of my with my venom,** I said. **We need the leaves from the Silivil tree to cure her, and this is the closest island that I knew of that had them.** Hiccup looked extremely confused, so I briefly wrote _EXPLAINING WHY WE ARE HERE_ to him and continued talking. **She has been infected for two days now and we really need it. May we have some?** I pleaded. The Council dragons exchanged a glance, doubtful.

**Doesn't your species' venom wear off within a few days?** The Typhoomerang asked. I shook my head.

**Normally it does, but my friend is a human, not a dragon. They aren't as resistant to the venom.** I looked to Alpha Toothless, still feeling guilty about hurting his friend and rider's wife. He had a neutral expression, staring straight ahead and not bothering to make eye contact.

The dragons once again shared a glance before looking at me. They probably figured out that the Night Fury next to me was the Alpha, but that didn't usually change their opinions. Here, dragons were based by reputation and trustworthiness, not rank.

**We would like to give the leaves to you, but we can't because we are short on help. Most of the dragons here are starting to hibernate. We can't spare anyone to go fetch them.** The Nightmare said.

**However,** the Typhoomerang said, **if you help us today then we can give you it. Not anything big, just everyday tasks. When the sun sets, you can rest here and in the morning you can leave with the leaves.** I wrote this down for Hiccup to read and looked up at him. It was his decision in the end.

"How many more days before Astrid's health becomes critical?" He asked softly. I wrote _FIVE DAYS. _Hiccup thought for a moment. "Okay. We will help you today, but tomorrow we have to be off. It is a two day trip home and the less time it takes, the better. What do you need to do?" He asked.

The Council dragons nodded. **Thank you. I am Firefang and this is Wingscale,** the Nightmare said. **The four of you can help with catching fish for now. Cloudspitter will tell you what to do afterwards. He will be your guide today,** Wingscale said, gesturing to the two Vikings and their dragons. They padded off after the Whispering Death, leaving me standing, uncomfortable, in front of the two dragons. They gestured for me to follow them and started walking into one of the caves opposite of where the others had gone. Firefang walked off another branch inside it, leaving me and the Wingscale walking quietly along.

Eventually the tunnel opened up to another smaller cavern where all sorts of dragons were eating. A platform in the center had fish stacked on top of -was that ice?- and we grabbed a few for ourselves. We sat over to the side and ate in silence. Eventually the quiet was killing me, so I broke it.

**What is it that you want with me?** I asked. Wingscale looked at me calmly.

**Did you come here before, about five years ago, with a rider?** He asked. I was surprised, and racked my brain trying to remember who the Council dragons were when we came. Was Wingscale one? If so, how did he remember me?

**Y-yes, **I said hesitantly. **My rider is gone, though. Died in a shipwreck.** I realized as I said those words that it was the first time I confessed to myself actually dying. Strange.

**Hmm. Well, I was just a simple Defender then, so you probably wouldn't remember me. I do remember you, though. One of the only Scorchspines to come see us in a long time.** I stared at the Typhoomerang for a few seconds. Now that he mentioned it, I did remember him as being one of the dragons who greeted me. His scales looked brighter then. If he retired from Council position he would probably become an Elder soon.

A sudden thought struck me. **Do you... know if there are any other Night Furies?** I asked quietly. **I... kind of made my friends mad when I hurt the girl. I want to make it up to them and I figured out that they want to know if there are Night Furies. Would you know?** Wingscale looked surprised at my question, but shook his head. I sighed. It was worth a shot.

**I need one more thing before you go join your friends.** I perked up. **Could you give some lessons to the Apprentice Spies before you leave? They _really_ need it.** Wingscale chuckled.

* * *

**Hiccup's POV**

Toothless was walking after the Whispering Death down one of the tunnels. As we descended I saw through the tunnels branching off huge amounts of dragons sleeping. Some of them were one species only, but others were mixed with different types. We turned right and the tunnel sloped upward until it ended, blocked by a huge boulder. The Whispering Death pushed it out of the way and we climbed out, revealing the ocean and a cove, the water a beautiful light blue. I looked into the water and saw huge schools of fish swimming around, bright scales blinding in the sun.

"So, I guess we just fish," I said. The Whispering Death rumbled an agreement. It didn't seem to be bothered by the sun, which was unusual. I made a mental note of that and climbed on Toothless. "Let's go fishing, Bud."

A few hours later we had gathered a large amount of fish piled into woven nets and were walking back down the tunnel and delivering the fish to the sleeping dragons. Most of them woke up groggily, ate their fish and were back asleep in seconds. A few didn't respond at all when we shook them. The extra fish we dropped in a hole off to the side of the main cavern. I looked down a hole and saw a pile of fish resting on top of ice. Actually a good idea to preserve fish...

Toothless nudged me and broke me out of my trance. I looked up and saw Mom and the Whispering Death heading down a different tunnel, probably our sleeping quarters. As we walked through the cave I was struck by how eerily quiet it was, the only noise was that of our footsteps and the occasional huffs of the dragons. Eventually the tunnel opened up to a small cavern lit by small pools of lava in cave niches. There were fur pelts on the floor and raised slabs of rock for the dragons. A small pool of water was in the corner. I whistled.

"You guys are really prepared for any guest, aren't you?" I asked. The Whispering Death did a sort of shrug. I lay down on one of the pelts, Toothless curling around me and not bothering with the slabs of rock. Mom lay one the other furs with Cloudjumper right next to her. Sometime in the night I heard pawsteps and opened my eyes, seeing Maplefang walk in, then fell back asleep.

* * *

_There was fire everywhere. Why was there fire? We hadn't had any major fires in Berk for years. This didn't make sense. My face was covered in sweat, yet I felt ice cold. My moucles felt like they were frozen. I couldn't move. _

_Then I saw her. Astrid. She was trapped in the house. Screaming for my help. I tried to run for her, but my legs wouldn't move. My head wouldn't move. I couldn't cry for anyone to go and run to get her, to save her from the burning building and the flaming wood keeping her from me. _

_I looked around. Eyes came up from the shadows. Yellow, bright eyes peering into my soul. Then a laughing, mocking voice. Cruel, merciless, watching me as the crackling fire circled closer and closer around me. The smoke was everywhere, making it hard to breathe, and yet I still felt ice cold. Why was I so cold?_

_The cracking of fire and wood changed to one noise, played over and over again. I looked to the eyes again. They changed to dragons, but I didn't recongnize them. They're eyes were cold and dead, holding no emotion. The cracking noise, the cracking of a whip, was controlling them. The voice and the noise were holding them against their wills. The fire died. The dragons snarled as one and jumped onto me._

* * *

I sat up from Toothless's side, panting and with a cold sweat. I looked around me. No fire, no evil voice, no dragons except for Toothless, Cloudjumper, and Maplefang. I sighed. What was my dream? I didn't understand it. It made no sense... I lay down again, knowing that I won't be able to sleep for a while after that.

* * *

**So Hiccup had a nightmare. What was it about? You will find out in the future. One is foreshadowing, and one is the feelings of another character. A mystery, though not really challenging.**

_**Now I shall talk about OC dragons. I will be including some of my own to start, but I will accept yours as well by PM. Your dragon must include:**_

**Name**

**Class (I will be going with the original Tidal, Boulder, Stoker, Mystery, Fear, and Sharp classes. If you want to go with the new classes in HTTYD2, tell me and I will change it)**

**Looks (Brief description, nothing too lengthy)**

**Brief description of shot limit, venom, armour, firepower, etc**

**Brief description of habits, such as food, hunting, area which they live, their lifestyle, etc**

**Where in the story you want to include this (plot ideas accepted to go along with it aswell)**

_**If you are a guest, then you can do this instead:**_

**Name**

**Class**

**Looks (Brief description)**

**Facts (Includes habits, etc and stats)**

**Where in the story (Location/ plot ideas accepted)**

_**Thanks to all! Oh and I finally fixed my computer so expect more updates!**_


	14. Chapter 13: Storms to Hold Us Back

_**I am so sorry for disappearing on you all! I promise I didn't mean to, and I apologize so much! I made myself write multiple chapters so that won't happen again anytime soon.**_

**It's really hard to write Valka. I don't know her character very well, since she's only been in the second movie, and I also have to think about how she would change from living with just dragons to living with dragons _and_ vikings. So if I wrote her out of character, I apologize. **

**This story will include two OC dragons: one of my own, and ****_silverwolvesarecool's _****OC dragon. Every dragon will get put in the story when the plot comes to it (if you put in a suggestion) or in the next chapter. If no plot suggestion, I will put them in the order they were posted. Earliest goes first and goes down the line.**

* * *

**Hiccup's POV**

At some point during the night I had dozed off, despite my nightmare, and had no other dreams. I woke to a warmth- or rather, a lack of it. I opened my eyes and saw Toothless standing by the entrance and gesturing to where the others were walking out into the tunnel.

Standing up and stretching, I followed them up the tunnel and through more passageways that I failed to keep track of. It was like a labyrinth. After a minute of walking we came to a dead-end, blocked by a boulder. Cloudsplitter shoved it to the side and we walked through, looking around. I stared wide-eyed at the scene.

The cavern was about the same size as the Bewilderbeast oasis that Mom lived in. Plants of every shape, size and color were growing, huge, out of the sandy soil. Small streams ran through craters in the ground, filtering through the plants. Above us the rock dome closed in, but the very top was just a layer of water floating! How was that possible, to have the water there without it crashing down on top of us?

I whispered to Maplefang my thoughts and she in turn grumbled to Cloudsplitter, turning back to me again in a matter of seconds.

_Glass, they call it._ She scratched in the dirt. _He says that they cook sand and sandstone to a certain heat and it turns see-through. It is as fragile as ice but extremely clear._

A memory popped into my head, something Fishlegs had told me that happened to him when we were teens. The day when Meatlug had eaten some random rocks in the search for Gronkle Iron, and it messed up so that everything metal became attracted to her hide. Fishlegs said that when she ate sandstone and shot lava, after it was cooled it turned into a clear substance that shattered when Gobber threw it behind him, thinking it was useless. I stored it away for future reference.

I squinted at the top and saw light filtering down. So we were under the ocean, hidden beneath the waves. Makes sense, I guess. The group kept walking until we reached the middle of the stone sphere, where a giant tree rose up with branches and leaves dipping towards the ground. They were huge; one leaf was the diameter of Toothless's head.

The Monstrous Nightmare, as I learned to be named Firefang, rose up on his hind legs and grabbed one of the smaller leaves at the top. He briefly said something to the dragons, before handing it to Toothless, who handed it to me. I put it in a saddle pack. We walked in silence to the entrance where we first came in. It was blocked again.

I turned to Firefang. "Thank you for letting us stay, and for giving us the cure for Astrid. If you need any more help, find a way to send a message to Berk and we will come." I bowed my head (I learned that it was a sign of greeting or farewell here), as well as Valka and the dragons, and the Oasis Dragons bowed their heads in return. Cloudsplitter opened the entrance, and we walked out and headed off without another word.

As the cave was blocked behind us, I stood for a moment and thought. It was so simple. We had the cure, no hard work, no fighting, just fly for a few days, catch some fish, and fly back. It was... strange, in a way.

"That seemed too easy," I said as we mounted the dragons.

"I though it would be more of a... I don't know, challenge. Like some wild dragon would be guarding it. It seems suspicious don't you think?" Mom said. I nodded.

"Well, we have what we came for. Now we head home as fast as possible before Astrid gets worse. We have four days."

**TIMELAPSETIMELAPSETIMELAPSE**

Something was wrong. There was more water hitting my face and clothes than just sea spray. I opened my eyes and sat up, releasing the straps that held me to Toothless's saddle as I slept. The sky was dark and gray and rain was starting to fall. I looked around me for islands, but there was nothing in the horizon that meant safety and shelter. I looked at Mom. She was crouched down on Cloudjumper (AN: I realise that Valka doesn't have a saddle for Cloudjumper and she rides him while standing, but I will probably make mistakes in the future), looking into the horizon and hadn't noticed I had woken up.

"We need to find shelter! Do you know where we are?" I yelled. She looked over to me and shook her head.

I sighed and put my hands in my lap. The storm was getting worse and we had nowhere to shelter. How would we make it through this?

A set of movement different from the waves below us caught my eye. I squinted at it, before clicking Toothless's fin to dive down. "Dragons!"

**Maplefang's POV**

Hiccup dived down to something I couldn't see, yelling that it was dragons. Thinking he had gone mad, Valka and I followed him in case he just crashed into the water and needed someone to pull him out. But as I got closer I could make out shapes. I flew next to Hiccup who was trying to explain our situation to the dragons. _He really needs to learn DragonSpeech,_ I thought. I lowered closer to the dragons.

The dragons weren't anything like the Tidal class dragons I had seen on Berk. They were a dark turquoise color, with long thin snouts, frills on the head, flippers on their back legs, and long wings that had streaks of sea green. There were three of them, and they seemed to be playing a game with each other.

**"Um, excuse me,"** I said politely. They looked up at me with mischief in their eyes. They must have not been older than adolescents.** "Do you know where the nearest island is? We can't seem to find any and we need shelter from the storm."**

**"Oh yeah! Sure, we'll help you,"** the one in the front, who seemed to be the leader, said. **"Just follow us!"** They sped off to the side, diving up and down and splashing all around us, making us even more soggy. Occasionally one would disappear for a few minutes then reappear right behind us. Eventually I could make out a shape in front of us that was slowly getting bigger. An island!

"Nice to know that I haven't found all the islands in this area," Hiccup joked. "That would make my life boring."

We landed on the shore and turned back to the dragons that were splashing in the water. _What are those dragons? _I wrote to Hiccup in the sand, only to have it washed away by the raindrops. Fortunately, he got the message.

"Tide Gliders," He said. "Ocean-residing dragons."

"They have an extremely playful and friendly nature," Valka piped in. "It seems like they never grow up."

"We don't have a lot on Berk; they like open ocean more," Hiccup finished. We watched the dragons swim for a little longer, and started to head inland when a loud blast of thunder brought us out of our thoughts.

The island for the most part was flat. There didn't seem to be any noticeable features about it as I flew up to get a better look for shelter. Most of the shore was either beach or grassy plains, with a small forest in the center and the north. A river cut through the east side of the island and stopped near the middle. The southwest beach had a lot of rocks piled there. I also noticed, as I looked harder, that some of the forest was cut down like a Timberjack had been through there.

The wind changed and I spiraled in the air before barely getting my balance again. _Okay,_ I thought. _Definitely not flying._

I landed next to Hiccup and told him what I saw. "Hm." He turned to Valka. "What do you think?"

"Let's head to where the stream ends and avoid the leveled area. We don't want to intude on any sleeping Timberjacks." She said.

We headed inland as the wind started up again, blowing cold rain in our faces. The last of the light glowing behind the clouds faded, and the raindrops changed to sleet, then snow. Hiccup started coughing and Valka started sneezing and sniffling. This island was bigger on the ground than it looked in the air. We weren't near the forest, and it looked like Hiccup and Valka couldn't go on much longer.

I stopped in my tracks. The others looked at me in confusion as I started digging a campfire pit.

**"What are you doing?"** I looked up to see Alpha Toothless peering at me.

**"Digging a hole for the campfire,"** I said as I finished scraping at the frozen dirt and looked for rocks to line the pit. **"Hiccup and Valka can't keep going on in this weather, and that forest isn't getting any closer."**

To my surprise, he nodded and walked back to Hiccup, herding him back to the pit as I lined it with stones and filled it with driftwood. Cloudjumper, getting at what we were doing, nudged Valka to the pit and lit it. We huddled around the fire, Hiccup in Alpha Toothless's arms, Valka in Cloudjumper's, and me standing on my hind legs with my back to the snow and my wings spread out to block the worst of the wind. My brand was visible to the others, but none of them paid attention, to my relief. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about my old home.

"You know, this reminds me of a time a few years ago, with the other teens and the dragons and the farm animals," Hiccup said suddenly.

"I never heard this story," Valka said sleepily. "Why don't you tell me?"

"Sure." Hiccup closed his eyes for a few seconds, and when he opened them it looked like he had traveled to a faraway place.

"It all started soon after we had made peace with the dragons. The animals were terrified of them. Yaks stopped giving milk; chickens stopped laying eggs. Me and the others tried to show the animals that dragons weren't that scary. None of it worked. The next day Bucket's bucket started getting _really_ tight, which meant a bad storm was coming, even though Devastating Winter was still months away..."

* * *

The world was bright when I woke up- too bright. I opened my eyes to a field of white snow. The sun was reflecting off the powder piles, making me uncomfortable. I blinked a few times and was glad when my eyes adjusted.

I shifted my wings on my stomach and stretched my legs. Even though most dragons, including myself, could sleep standing, it was very uncomfortable. I had dozed off a few times before the storm died down enough for me to drop onto four paws and relax my wings.

I shook the snow off my back and nudged Alpha Toothless, who grumbled and in turn opened his wings and nudged Hiccup. Cloudjumper opened his eyes and woke Valka without a word. The dragon said few words, preferring to watch and say what he needs to in simple gestures.

"Okay," Valka said. "Let's head out now. We can eat in the saddle." We all nodded and Hiccup saddled up Alpha Toothless. Once he was ready we took off into the air.

A roar cut through the air and I turned around to see Hiccup and Alpha Toothless falling towards the ground. They landed in the snow and popped up with no injuries, but they still gave us a fright. I landed next to Hiccup, Valka right behind me. "Hiccup! What happened?" She cried.

Hiccup muttered something under his breath as he messed with Alpha Toothless's tail fin. "Toothless's tail fin locked up. The cold froze the bars together. Making a fire is risky, because the flames could set the fabric on fire, and then we would be stuck here. I guess... all we can do is make a sling and have Cloudjumper and Maplefang carry Toothless. With their agreement, of course," He said.

After searching through the saddlebags to find thick blankets and some rope, tying the corners safely. We had Alpha Toothless lay down on the blanket and secured him with the ropes. The only problem was that we didn't have quite enough rope, and we had to stretch it to tie it over Alpha. Soon, everything was secured.

"Ready?" Hiccup counted, seated on Cloudjumper to reduce weight. "One...two...three!"

I jumped up and pumped my wings as hard as I could, rising slowly into the air. I looked to my right and saw Cloudjumper using two wings, probably so as not to go ahead of me and tip the sling.

We were safely in the air when we started to fly forwards. We glided over the island and had made it to right over the forest before I felt the ropes weakening. **"Hiccup!"** I cried.

The ropes in my claws snapped. The sling fell down on my side and Alpha Toothless slid off. I let go of the short strands that was all in my claws and flew down. The Night Fury spread out his wings and glided safely in a clearing in the trees after spinning to balance himself out.

"Okay, we may need to get some vines. Maybe we can also see if any Tide Gliders can help us carry Toothless," Hiccup said. "Let's go. I'll search over here with Toothless. Mom, you and Cloudjumper search over there," He said, pointing first to his left then behind him. "Maplefang, you can search with me and Toothless."

We headed into our different directions, searching the trees for the least frozen vines we could. Occasionally we would here voices of "Found some!" and would group together to look at the amount we got, and if we didn't find much we headed to a different area. Eventually we made it to the cut out area of the forest.

"Wow, there is a lot here!" Hiccup said, bending down to grab vines off of a toppled tree.

"Be careful," Valka said. "I'll be over here, but keep a look out for Timberjacks."

We spread out once again, Hiccup on my left and Alpha Toothless on my right. Suddenly the wind changed, and I looked up at Alpha Toothless.

**"Does that smell like what I think it is?"** I asked.

**"Yup."**

Slowly, we walked over the fallen trees toward Hiccup. If we made a sound, we would be doomed. Almost, so close, and...

Hiccup stepped on a twig, unaware of the danger. The loud sound echoed in the quiet still air, and I held my breath. Hopefully, maybe, they didn't hear it...

A rumbling filled the air. The ground started trembling, and I looked to my right in horror as a ton of Skullwreckers charged out into the clearing, toppling trees and crashing through boulders. They had a wild and panicked look in their eyes. They were heading straight for us.

**"Hiccup!"** Alpha Toothless cried. I looked behind me. He was right on the edge of the herd. There was no way that he could reach Hiccup in time. I ran quickly towards Hiccup, using my speed that all Scorchspines had.

"Wait, wha- WOOOOOOAAAAAAAHH!" Hiccup yelled as I jumped up, grabbed his shoulders, and took off into the air, just getting out of the way as the Skullwrecker herd passed underneath us. I hovered in the air as they crashed into the other side of the clearing, crashing a new path through the trees.

I lowered down and let Hiccup out of my paws. "Thank you, Maplefang."

Without another word, too shocked to say anything, and created the sling once more. With the attached vines, we could safely secure Alpha Toothless in it.

"Okay," Hiccup said. "Mom, let me get on Cloudjumper, and then we can take off."

**"Alpha?"**I asked as Hiccup climbed on the Stormcutter.

**"Don't call me Alpha anymore,"** He said suddenly. I looked over at him, surprised. **"After you poisoned Astrid, I didn't know if I could trust you. But after seeing you rush into a herd of Skullwreckers to save Hiccup, I think it is safe to say that I can. So don't call me Alpha anymore. I hate the name."**

I nodded, too shocked to say anything. We lifted off, calling to the Tide Gliders to help us. The leader from yesterday, who told us his name was Riptide, let us set Toothless down on his back to take some of the weight off the rope.

With everything safely set, we continued the long journey back to Berk.

* * *

**Wow! That too A LOT of time to write. I'm taking this out of my school time instead of getting ready. Anyways, I hope you can forgive me. It looks like Toothless was able to forgive Maplefang. I see a friendship forming between these two...**

**Follow, favorite, review and tell me what you like and don't like! Don't forget to send in dragon requests!**

**Have a wonderful day everyone!**


	15. Chapter 14: Strange Dragons

**Hey! Back again with yet another chapter in the story! The OC dragons have a different spot in the plot, so I will announce when I put your dragon in!**

**On to the story!**

* * *

_**"After you poisoned Astrid, I didn't know if I could trust you. But after seeing you rush into a herd of Skullwreckers to save Hiccup, I think it is safe to say that I can. So don't call me Alpha anymore. I hate the name."**_

* * *

**Maplefang's POV**

Did he really trust me? No... no way he could. I _hurt_ Astrid. _I _was the reason we were taking this long trip.

I looked down at where Toothless lay on the makeshift sling. Riptide had be cooperative and carried him for the past few hours as we traveled, taking some of the weight off of mine and Cloudjumper's ropes. He would have to swim a long way to get back to his home, all just to help some random dragons and humans he just met.

If Toothless _did_ trust me, then maybe he had forgiven me for hurting Astrid. Maybe. I hoped. I would just go with it for now.

I shook my head. Toothless's forgiveness came second, the cure for Astrid first. We were close to home, about a day's flight from the island we were nearing. That would be plenty of time to give her the cure. I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the growing darkness while the sun set. The island in front of us was the one we stayed on the first night of this trip. It had a lava pit core, so it was very warm and bright...

Warm! Toothless could have his tailfin thaw there, and as long as we flew fast, we should be able to make it back to Berk before it froze again. If he kept flying and didn't stay still in one cold place for too long, we would be fine. The dragons there were expecting us to pass by again, so they wouldn't mind. They couldn't crowd us, though, or someone could step on his tail and crack the metal.

I turned to Cloudjumper. **"Hold my side for now? I need to go check out the island. You'll catch up to me in a few minutes,"** I said to the Stormcutter. He nodded and I handed him my corner of the sling. I sped ahead, careful to look for the entrance we found the first time. I pawed it slightly bigger, since last time we all squeezed in quickly. The sound of my movements brought the nearby dragons' attention. They crowded around me, clamoring to see if I had brought the others.

**"Overly friendly crowd,"** I muttered under my breath. The dragons started asking a flurry of questions, and I could barely hear one start before another one interrupted them. **"STOP!"** I roared. They shrank back a few paces and I relaxed a bit. One dragon came forward and I recognized the Changewing who had talked to me last time.

**"So, where are they?"** He asked. I shook the dust off my paws from where the mob of dragons kicked it onto me.

**"A few minutes behind me. I came to announce that they will be here, so NO ONE is allowed to crowd them like you did me. You step on someone's tail or foot, and you will regret that decision,"** I said. **"If you're nice, maybe we'll answer questions or tell a story or two. We need to spend a few hours here to warm up before we leave. Is that okay?"** I looked to every dragon, all of them agreeing to what I said.

**"Good. I'll be back. Remember: No crowding."** I flew out of the hole to join up with Hiccup and Valka again, leading them to the volcano cavern.

* * *

**Toothless's POV**

I discovered something as Cloudjumper, Maplefang, and Riptide carried me. I did **_not_** like to be useless. I wanted to open my wings and zoom towards Berk with the cure for Astrid, but because of my stupid tailfin I couldn't. Eventually I dozed off, only to be woken later by voices.

"The dragons are just a bit creepy, don't you think, Bud?" I heard Hiccup's voice say. I opened my eyes to find myself in the volcano cavern where we spent our first night in. Like before, dragons were crowded around us, looking mainly at me and Hiccup. I groaned and stood up, stretching my legs.

**"How did I get in here without waking up?"** I asked, mainly to myself.

**"I'm not too sure. You wouldn't wake up, so we dragged you in. You've been out for about an hour, but we only got here a few minutes ago, by the way,"** Maplefang's voice came from my left. I looked over to the Scorchspine, who was blocking a group of baby Zipplebacks as they tried to run closer. **"Do these things ever run out of energy?"** She growled. I chuckled.

**"Nope,"** I said in an amused tone. Maplefang shot me a glare before nudging the baby dragons back to their mothers. She settled beside me as the muttering dragons around us parted and a male Changewing walked through, bowing to me.

**"I am Acid. We are happy to have you here, Alpha,"**he said as he rose.

**"How many times to I have to say to dragons: I don't like formality. My name is Toothless. Don't call me Alpha,"** I said, irritated.

**"Of course, Alpha Toothless. We have been told that you wish to stay here for a few hours. We were wondering if you could tell us the story of how you beat the Bewilderbeast to pass the time?"** I snorted at the term "Alpha Toothless", but nodded.

"We're gonna be here for a while, Bud," Hiccup said as he lay against my side. "I'm going to sleep." I covered Hiccup with my wing and crooned softly.

"Good, Hiccup. You need it. You never get enough since you became Chief," Valka said as she scratched a Gronkle that had approached her.

**"Hmm,"** I thought of a place to start the story. **"Me and Hiccup were flying one day when we came across a new island. See, Hiccup likes to record every island he comes across. He has a big map and we keep adding on to it. So we added the island we landed on and named it 'Itchy Armpit Island.'"** There were a few snickers from the crowd. I glanced at Maplefang and she had a look on her face I couldn't quite read. **"I wanted to name it Dragon's Storm. He got the idea,"** I said, gesturing to the now-sleeping rider under my wing.

**"Astrid, Hiccup's mate, shows up soon after us on her dragon Stormfly, who is a Deadly Nadder. They talked for a bit before they saw a huge colum of smoke rising up in the distance. We flew over seeing that is was a burned down forest..."**

* * *

_**TIME LAPSE- TWO HOURS**_

I opened my eyes and yawned, looking around at the bright cave. Most of the dragons who had listened to me tell my stories were wandering around doing other things or sleeping. I had convinced them to leave us alone after I told them the story of the Black Bewilderbeast and how Hiccup trained me (honestly, we trained each other, but mostly me train him). Said person was sleeping under my wing, and I crooned and licked his face. His eyes opened and he stretched, yawning loudly before he noticed the spit on his face. He wiped it off and glared at me.

"Well, Bud, I guess we should be on our way," he said as he stood up and flicked some spit at my head. I grumbled and wiped it off, then got up and nudged Maplefang awake while Hiccup talked quietly with Valka, who never really fell asleep in the first place. After a short meal we were ready to go. I looked at my tail, glad that it seemed to have thawed and dried. Hiccup climbed onto my back and tested it out. It worked, happily. We dismantled and packed the parts of the sling.

We started to walk towards the exit when Acid appeared in front of us. **"Are you leaving?"** He asked.

**"Yes,"** I answered. **"We have to go home."**

**"You're sure you can't stay for a little bit?"** he asked in a sly tone.

**"We were never going to stay any longer than we had to. We need to leave,"** I said.

**"Toothless, the dragons are closing around us,"** Maplefang whispered. I looked and saw it was true: all the dragons that lived here were forming a circle around us and slowly closing it in.  
**"Why don't you stay a little bit longer? There is no reason for you to rush and leave,"** the Changewing kept his eyes on us. I growled.

**"Looks like we're going to have to fight to make our way out of here,"** I muttered.

**"Why don't you just control them and make them move?"** Maplefang asked as she crouched down in a defensive position.

**"I don't like controlling others. I know what it's like, and I myself prefer to be in control of my own body, so I treat them the same way,"** I said. The dragons closed in tighter. **"On my signal, jump over the dragons and head to the exit. If any get in your way, go around them or shove them. Don't focus on fighting or you will be outnumbered." **I was almost face-to-face with a nasty looking Nightmare. **"Now!"** I yelled.

I jumped over Acid, Maplefang doing the same. Cloudjumper, who was bigger, had a harder time and shoved more dragons than jumped. We raced towards the exit, Maplefang in the lead, me in the middle, and Cloudjumper behind us, knocking any who chased us down with his tail. We ran out and took off into the air, flying as fast as we could towards the direction of Berk. After half an hour of our fastest flying, we relaxed our pace and checked to see that none of the dragons had followed us. I let out a sigh of relief.

We were almost home.

* * *

**Hiccup's POV**

My fingers were tapping against Toothless's hide again. They wouldn't stop, just kept going like the pattering rain on a stormy day. They drummed against my best friend's scales, and then I was scratching him behind the ear. He purred with pleasure, and then my fingers were tapping again. _Tap. Tap. Tap tap tap tap tap tap._ Toothless grumbled and I pulled my hand to my arm. "Sorry, Bud," I said. "Just a little bit anxious to get back to Astrid."

To my credit, I kept still for another two minutes. Then I started up again without knowing. _Tap. Tap. Tap._

How was Astrid doing? Maplefang said it took a week before she would enter a coma, and we still had three days left, but I was still worried. Did she have a fever? Was she eating and drinking okay? Was she sleeping fine? How was Stormfly doing, with her rider sick in bed? How long would it take before Astrid recovered enough to go about her daily life again?

Toothless gave a little growl and shook his head. I pulled my hand back again. "Sorry Toothless."

"Worrying about Astrid, are you?" Mom said beside me. I nodded.

"I just can't keep her off my mind. When we were farther it was easier to not worry, but now we're so close and I'm worrying about her so much," I bursted out.

"I was only with you for a few months before Cloudjumper took me to the Bewilderbeast's nest, but in that time, you got sick so much. Little colds and minor fevers were common with you. After a while I wasn't as worried about it, because I knew you would be fine, but one time you got very sick. Your fever was so high and you couldn't stop coughing. Your face was always either red or pale, and we had the healer with you almost all day. I would sit next to your cradle and constantly ask the healer questions. I never left your side," Mom spoke above the wind.

"Eventually they kicked me out because I bothered the healer with my questions. I was forced to roam the village, not able to go in the house and check how you were. I was always trying to think of a way to get in the house without anyone noticing and check on you. I couldn't live my daily life without knowing how you were. My mind played out scary thoughts of you getting worse or even dying, and I would burst though the door and dash to you to make sure you were all right, only to be pushed outside again."

"Finally, when you were starting to recover, they let me back in. I frequently checked on you even after you were fully recovered. Then one day I realized that you were fine, and if something bad were to happen, I would know first. For now I had to continue with my life and enjoy the ups and downs, not fret over every little thing that happened to you. That night was the night Cloudjumper took me."

"Even at the Bewilderbeast's nest I worried, but I knew that Stoic would take care of you no matter what. I knew that you would grow into a strong boy and a powerful man, ready to take on the world. I never forgot you and I would think about you all the time, but instead of wondering what bad things happened to you, I would think about all of the things you would achieve," she finished. I smiled at her and she grinned back.

"Thanks, Mom. I feel better now," I said.

_Tap. Tap. Tap tap tap._

"Or for crying out loud!" Mom laughed. "Calm down!" Toothless hit me with his ears.

"Okay, okay! I'll stop!" I laughed.

* * *

**I really liked the little story that Valka told. It shows the bond between her and Hiccup and how much Valka cares for him.**

**Conscience: Tell them why the update is late**

**Me: But I don't want to! I'll tell them later**

**Conscience: Really? When will you tell them then?**

**Me: ...**

**Conscience: That's what I thought. If you won't tell them, I will**

**Me: NO WAIT DON'T**

**Conscience: Gracie **(What I'm going to call myself for short) **is working on some other stories that she will post soon. One is another How To Train Your Dragon story about what happened to Toothless when he was young** (I personally believe that he has no memory of other Night Furies, so he was probably orphaned)** called "The Adventures of Night Fury Toothless" (title still indecisive) and a Hunter X Hunter story called "Welcome to My World". I'll say when I post the first chapter of these, and if you sound interested, tell me what you think!  
**

**Me: NO WHY DID YOU DO THAT I MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE**

**Conscience: Oh just be quiet.**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


End file.
